


My Canvas

by ChangeTheCircumstances



Series: Brothers [4]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse, Angst with a Happy Ending, Disfunctional Father-Son Relationships, Drug Abuse, Drug Use, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I did Gavin's redemption now it's time for Leo's, M/M, Minor Character Death, Painting, Rehabilitation, lots of painting, mentions of child abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-13
Updated: 2018-08-24
Packaged: 2019-06-26 16:28:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 48,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15666942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChangeTheCircumstances/pseuds/ChangeTheCircumstances
Summary: When Elijah first meets Leo Manfred, he's fairly certain no one's looked at him with that much hatred in their eyes before.





	1. Mistakes and Reconciliation

**Author's Note:**

> So this is both very much me just having fun with an idea that I saw passing by on tumblr and also wanting to explore Elijah a bit more. This series in general has been very Gavin centric so this one is obviously going to focus almost entirely on Elijah.
> 
> Also, it's important to know that this is very much a companion piece to the previous stories, It Was Never About Jealousy, A Missing Genius, and The Teenager Android even though it will go past that timeline a bit. I wanted to show people more of what Elijah has been up to while Gavin's done his own thing and that's where this story appeared from. There will be between three and four chapters give or take and it will take a little while for the next chapter to get up. Again, the only reason why I was able to upload this one immediately after finishing The Teenager Android is because I started writing this first chapter when writing that final one.
> 
> With that being said, a massive thank you to everyone again and I hope you enjoy!

It was right before Carl’s accident that Elijah met Leo for the first time. The year was two thousand and twenty-six. Cyberlife was at the height of its power and only growing. Elijah had recently found an issue in the code, RA9. It wasn’t supposed to be there but at that point, Elijah still had no idea what it meant. He was still studying it and hadn’t informed anyone of it.

Despite the concerns that RA9 could lead to, Elijah had honestly been more worried over his former professor’s health. Her chances weren’t good and she was even too sick to come to events now, the second backbone that helped Elijah deal with public life and put on that persona of a much more charismatic man than he was. The confidence part he didn’t have to come up with. He just had to pretend that he liked being in the spotlight even though he very much didn’t.

Right now, it was a little easier because for once, he wasn’t the center of attention. Instead, it was the man at his side, Carl and the paintings that were around them. Elijah was laughing at something Carl had just said when the woman and the kid walked up. Elijah was twenty-three.

Being that young, Elijah had his fair share of admirers and haters for what he had accomplished, his already vastly accumulated wealth, his intelligence. Elijah didn’t like the stares, the attention but he’d grown used to it, the starry eyes and the harsh glares. But nothing, nothing had ever been as callous as the kid’s stare was now.

Later Elijah would learn he was only sixteen. Elijah hadn’t thought it possible to accumulate that much hatred into someone so young.

The woman walked forward to talk to Carl, and Carl automatically turned away, clearly recognizing her and the matter being of some importance. The kid stayed behind as did Elijah and they both awkwardly looked at each other.

“I’m Elijah Kamski,” he finally fell on. He put on his charismatic smile like a glove. He expected it to work, holding out his hand, but the kid’s glare only intensified.

“How long have you known my father?”

Elijah’s mask cracked just a bit. This was…but Carl had never mentioned him…

A disgusted noise escaped the kid’s throat. “Figured he never talked about me. Not that we’ve even really met. I don’t understand what mom thinks will come of this.”

Elijah didn’t really know how to reply so he just looked and analyzed. It was a warm day, the room was set at an average temperature, and yet the kid was wearing long sleeves. There were dark circles under his eyes and his skin was a bit gaunt like he wasn’t eating well. Elijah wondered if he was sick.

“I imagine your mother just wants you to get to know your father,” Elijah tried.

That seemed to be the wrong choice of words though as the kid shot out, “She just feels guilty that she’s leaving me. And somehow this is supposed to make me feel better.”

“Why is she leaving you?”

“Because that’s what people do when they’re given two months to live,” the kid angrily bit out.

Elijah was pretty sure he’d never made a worse misstep in his life. He couldn’t think of any way to back pedal from that and instead settled on downing the rest of his champagne. A waiter came walking by and the kid grabbed a glass, drinking it faster than Elijah had and practically throwing it at the waiter before he had left.

“Aren’t you a bit young—”

“I spent all my life without a fucking dad and now my mom wants to introduce me to mine. I don’t need a second damn one on the same day.”

Elijah quieted, the point a fair enough one. Even with his rather unusual life, he’d still done his fair share of teenage acts only a few years ago. That thought had Elijah wincing slightly. Things hadn’t been going well with Gavin. He didn’t understand why. His brother had just kept pushing him away recently.

He shook his head and focused back on the situation at hand. He noted how the kid’s aggravated fidgeting had calmed after the glass. Liquid courage Elijah supposed. Still, when the kid’s eyes met his, the anger in them hadn’t really lessened.

There had to be something he could say but considering how poorly his last choice of words had been perceived, Elijah decided to stay quiet. Finally, Carl and the woman walked back over and she said, “Leo, this is your father Carl.”

The hatred in Leo’s eyes vanished to reveal…just blank confusion. He didn’t know what to say, how to react. It probably didn’t help that Carl’s response of, “It’s good to finally meet you Leo,” sounded more like he was talking to a business partner rather than his son.

“Elijah, we’ll have to continue our conversation later.”

“Of course Carl,” he smiled as Carl gripped his shoulder warmly before turning back to the woman and Leo. Elijah nodded and left, feeling Leo’s glare burning into the back of his neck as he became lost amongst the crowd. Without Carl at his side, Elijah threw his mask back on to better hide his wish that he could just run home or to his labs in Cyberlife. Though to be honest, just about anywhere would be preferable than here now.

As he walked around and casually spoke with people, Elijah decided that it was doubtful he’d understand why Leo seemed to hate him. Neither did he expect to see the kid again, at least not very soon.

But four days later the accident happened.

Despite being in the middle of a meeting with several engineers, Elijah ran out the moment he’d gotten the news. He’d gone straight to the hospital, to Carl’s bedside, the tears pricking at his eyes as he held Carl’s limp hand. He’d already talked to the doctors, learned the prognosis. Carl was still under and it was weird, horrific, confusing that Elijah now knew something that would change Carl’s life forever. Something that Carl didn’t know yet as the machine at his side continued to beep at a steady pace.

That was where Elijah realized why Leo hated him so much.

Elijah was bent forward, holding Carl’s hand when he heard the yelling.

“I’m his damn son! Just let me in!”

Elijah didn’t know what happened in the hall but somehow Leo managed to barge in and freeze in the doorway. Elijah wasn’t too great at emotions but he could understand why Leo was desperate. Despite the cold first meeting between Leo and Carl, Leo’s mother was dying and he’d soon only have his father left. It didn’t matter that he didn’t know him well.

But Leo had struggled to get in, clearly wasn’t allowed as a nurse rushed around the corner and grabbed Leo’s arm. Leo was Carl’s son and it should have been easy for him to be at his side but it wasn’t. It was Elijah at Carl’s side.

That was why he looked at him with such hatred. Elijah was where Leo should be. He’d replaced him.

Elijah just stared as the nurse yanked Leo out of the doorway. He didn’t know how to feel about that. He should probably do something but all he could think about was Carl and how he couldn’t bear to leave his side.

So now Elijah knew why Leo hated him but he still didn’t know how to react to the kid, what to do about him. The fact that Carl didn’t even mention him when he finally did wake up showed how disconnected the relationship was. Elijah didn’t bring it up either as he doubted it would do any good.

The next time Elijah saw Leo was several months later. Elijah had recently turned twenty-four. It was summer, a time where Carl had once always been found out in the garden, under a tree in the shade as his brush moved across the canvas.

But not now. Elijah didn’t know how to react or what to say as Carl’s dark, depressive mood only seemed to get worse. Neither could he be with Carl twenty-four seven. He didn’t know how to help and more often than not, his presence felt more like a hindrance. Still, he tried to be of some help when he was there. On that day, he was in the kitchen getting water for Carl when the doorbell sounded. If it was just a package, the item would have been left and the simple AI at the door would have announced that. If it was someone familiar, the door would have announced them too.

However, the doorbell just rang again and Elijah walked over to get it.

“Oh…Leo right?”

The disgusted look thrown his way seemed answer enough as Leo pushed past. “Where’s my dad?”

“The living room. Is your mom…”

“She died last month.”

It was said so quickly, Elijah wasn’t sure how to respond. He now recalled that Leo had said his mom didn’t have much time left but to make such a bad error in judgment… Elijah tried to think of something to say that could fix the situation and settled on, “Where are you staying?”

“Around.”

Elijah didn’t like the sound of that. The kid definitely wasn’t old enough to live on his own. “If you need help—”

“I’m just here to talk to my fucking dad. Will you get off my back?”

Leo pushed past and Elijah followed. He noted that it was definitely too hot to wear long sleeves today. There were marks on his arm but Leo didn’t let Elijah say anything more. All he could do was walk to the living room with him. He stayed back but was close enough that he could still hear the conversation.

“Hey dad.”

“Leo,” Carl softly said.

“I uh…I’m kind of in need of some money again.”

Again? So Leo had come here before? Well, Leo was living with Carl then. Right? He couldn’t be alone, or at least they would talk about it. Carl wouldn’t just throw money at his son and let the kid leave. Right?

“How much?”

That was it. There was no attempt at trying to talk. No question about how Leo was doing and a thought flashed through Elijah’s mind. It was a thought he’d pushed down and away and even now his mind was trying to ignore it. He thought of his uncaring, indifferent father, someone who had ignored him again and again.

Elijah pushed those thoughts away, closed off his access to the memories and told himself everything was fine. But there was a fact that stayed with Elijah. He couldn’t let Carl just sink deeper into depression. He couldn’t let Carl become someone like his fathe-no just someone so lost and uncaring. Not without trying.

He watched as Carl controlled his wheelchair to a desk and handed Leo some cash. His eyes were distant and lost like they’d always been these past few months. No conversation, nothing, and then Leo was starting to leave, though he did pause to look at Elijah.

“What’s your problem?” Leo asked. For a moment, it sounded like he was actually trying to be nice, but then as if to balance it out he added a sneer to it.

“I’m fine,” Elijah said. Even though he wasn’t. Even though his voice didn’t convey that and those harsh memories still tried to bubble up.

Leo clearly didn’t believe him but he also didn’t care enough to ask more and just walked out.

That was the third time Elijah met Leo and it was the first time he really had an idea as to how to help Carl. That was how Markus was born as Elijah continued with the RK series and studied the RA9 mutation.

When Elijah gave Markus to Carl, he didn’t see an immediate change. But slowly Carl seemed to talk more and become more interested in the world around him. Elijah actually started to talk with Carl again, not just at him.

And when Amanda finally passed away, Carl mentioned it first and said, “Do you want me to go with you?”

It was the first time in a while that Carl had really initiated anything, particularly an outing. For a while, it had seemed like he didn’t care about anything outside of what was happening in his mind. But this, as sad as it was, at least marked a good step for Carl and Elijah had just nodded. They went to her funeral, the procession simple and incredibly to the point. Just how she would have liked it.

Elijah cried. It felt like losing his mother and father to the accident. Except worse and real because Amanda had actually cared about him whereas his mother had never—

But he stopped that thought quickly. He pulled himself together and wiped the tears away. He’d known Amanda’s death was coming, despite all his attempts at prolonging it. He would get through it and he did.

That was the fourth time Elijah met Leo. It was after the burial, the wake. Elijah was at Carl’s, himself, Carl, and even Markus all in black still.

“So you go to that woman’s funeral but not my mom’s.”

Carl sighed and slowly turned. “Leo, I didn’t hear you come in.”

“Yeah, well, the news won’t stop talking about how the allusive Elijah Kamski came out of hiding today. Figured I’d see what all the fuss was about.”

Elijah winced. He’d seen the cameras in the distance during the funeral. He’d done all he could to keep the media presence as low as possible.

“Professor Stern was an intelligent woman and an old friend. You shouldn’t be so disrespectful,” Carl chided.

“Oh, so what was mom to you? You didn’t come to her funeral.”

“The timing was poor for everyone. I couldn’t go and I’m sorry,” Carl said in response.

His words only seemed to partially appease Leo. Carl truly hadn’t been able to, still healing from the accident. However, it was clear Leo saw that as more of an excuse. And maybe it somewhat was. Elijah didn’t know Carl’s mind even after being friends for years. He could only tell that Leo didn’t really believe him.

“Yeah, well sorry for your loss and all that,” Leo bitterly said. He walked over and grabbed a glass without asking. As he poured himself a drink, he looked to Markus.

Carl had told Elijah of Leo’s resentment towards Markus when first introduced but this was Elijah’s first time seeing it.

“You really dressed up this thing? What like it had feelings for her too?” Leo growled, walking over and giving Markus just the slightest push.

Markus moved with it, easily going back to standing perfectly upright as he said, “Elijah requested all wear black as is traditional. It wouldn’t have been appropriate otherwise.”

“Like you care what is or isn’t appropriate. Like you care at all. You don’t understand human feelings.”

“Leave him alone Leo,” Carl said.

“Oh, so it’s a him now? You’re getting too sentimental in your old age dad. Next you’ll be naming the fridge.” Leo downed the drink he’d poured himself and slammed it on the table. Something new flickered in his eyes. This wasn’t what he’d planned. He hadn’t intended to fight but… “This was a mistake.” Leo quickly turned to leave. He pushed past Elijah with a half mumbled, “Sorry for your loss,” again.

Elijah watched him leave. He closed his eyes, releasing a shuddering breath.

“Elijah, I’m sorry for that,” Carl said. “It seems that—”

“No need Carl. I…I’ve been needing to leave anyways,” sighed Elijah. He finished his own drink and carefully put it down. “I’ll see you later. Markus,” he added with a small nod as the android inclined his head back.

That was the last time Elijah actually saw Leo for a while though he heard about him from time to time from Carl. Markus also kept him updated on some of the trouble Leo was starting to cause as Carl became less and less willing to give him money, just in case if Elijah had to interject.

Then a year later he was removed from Cyberlife. The public thought it was his choice but he’d fought hard to stay on. He still hadn’t explained what the potential behind RA9 could be which had apparently been the right choice. If he’d actually revealed its location and what it did to the android’s programming, Cyberlife would have destroyed it immediately.

Elijah found himself lost as he got rid of his property in the city. The house he’d had built outside the city was finished and Elijah moved everything he had there. He had to think. What was his next move going to be? Did it matter? Should he try and play a hand in this or let it occur as it was?

He saw Leo not long after that, the now young man making a pass at him for not being able to stay in the company he’d created. Carl had yelled at him for the cruel comments and a fight had ensued while Elijah had just shrunk into the shadows.

Elijah tried to avoid visiting Carl on days when he thought Leo might come over. He didn’t like the fights that commonly occurred between the two as old memories tried to break through. However, that meant his visits with Carl lessened again and again too.

Elijah didn’t consciously realize what was happening. He ignored it instead, became more and more distant as he came up with one reason or another to stay away and let Carl find a companion in Markus. Elijah didn’t really understand what it meant until he saw Leo again. It was two thousand and thirty-one, before Elijah’s seemingly final fight with his brother. So things were incredibly strained with Gavin, but it was before the first Chloe had deviated meaning that despite the models that lived with him, Elijah was essentially alone.

He didn’t know how Leo found his place, probably something written down in Carl’s house, or maybe even from Markus himself. Either way, Elijah was faced with Leo for the first time in a while. Leo was twenty-one and Elijah twenty-nine.

It was just a bunch of bad circumstances that collided by pure chance.

Elijah was frustrated and in a slump, both in regards to RA9 and his brother. He’d been drinking, perhaps too much because memories and thoughts were slipping through the cracks that just made him want to drink more.

A Chloe had opened the front door and Leo had come barreling in, voice loud and demanding to see him. Elijah recognized the voice as it echoed along the halls. He just took another sip before standing up and turning to face the doorway.

“You!”

Elijah crossed his arms and looked at him. Elijah had seen the needle marks before, had easily put two and two together, but this was the first time he’d truly seen Leo in a state. And maybe the young man was a bit inebriated too. Christ, how had he driven this far out without crashing?

“I’ve really been fucking thinking. Thinking about you and all the shit you’ve done to me. All the shit you’ve taken from me!” Leo advanced and Elijah let him. Two Chloes appeared near the door, unsure of what to do.

“I didn’t do anything to you,” Elijah replied, managing to string the sentence together with only one slip up on the words.

“You took my father away from me!”

“Like you even wanted him in the first place—”

Leo grabbed him. The motion was relatively small but Elijah just barely kept from falling. The two Chloes stepped closer.

“You had fucking parents! Why’d you have to take my father?!”

The Chloes moved closer but Elijah held his hand out, made a motion for them to leave. He was angry and slightly inebriated himself. The logical part of him that was saying the Chloes should stop Leo and get him out of here was quiet. Instead, the anger that he more often saw in his brother welled up inside Elijah. If Leo wanted a fight, he’d get his damn fight.

“You’re the one who only visits him for money. You…you pushed him away,” Elijah got out as he shoved Leo back.

“He pushed me away first! How would you feel if your dad couldn’t even be bothered to acknowledge you for sixteen years?”

Those words hit Elijah unexpectedly as Leo pushed him back. Memories tried to weasel their way up, young tears and Gavin crying and Elijah scared. But he just stumbled back and grabbed the bottle. He poured another and started to drink quickly as Leo advanced again.

“And then you just went and replaced me again! Once wasn’t enough huh? You had to bring that fucking computer into the mix.”

“See that’s all you care about. You’re not thinking of Carl! You’re just thinking of you,” Elijah shot back as Leo shoved him again.

“And you’re any damn different? You put that thing there to just push me farther out.”

“Markus is there for Carl you stupid little man!”

“Why? He had you? Why did he need that thing?”

Elijah poured himself another glass.

Leo started to laugh, the noise grating on Elijah’s ears. “Shut up,” he growled.

“You seriously let yourself get replaced. You just fucking let go and decided for whatever fucking reason you couldn’t deal with real people,” Leo grabbed the bottle and drank straight from it. “Why? Why the hell did you have to step in on my life? You have fucking everything!”

“You…you think you just know everything? Don’t you? You think you know…know me. That you know Carl. What? Because he’s your dad?”

“I know you’re…you’re more pathetic than me if you really felt like…like you had to replace yourself with that thing,” Leo said as he laughed again.

Elijah drank more. Leo drank more. They shoved each other constantly but neither really managed to curl their hands into proper fists.

“You’ve had everything handed…at…to…towards you. You aren’t…the victim.”

“You aren’t either,” Elijah mumbled. “You…are a screw up…of the…the worst kind.”

The insults were becoming more confusing, less focused as Elijah grabbed a new bottle and kept the booze coming. But Elijah did manage to say something that struck harder. He could barely remember what he’d said the moment the words were out. Something about Leo’s mother, how it was a miracle she’d lived as long as she had with him as a son.

And in response, Leo said something about Elijah’s mother and the memories broke through the drunken fog. Pain and fear and he collapsed on the couch. Leo collapsed near him and as Elijah reached for another drink, Leo reached into his pocket.

The barest bit of words really didn’t make any sense to Elijah at this point. He hadn’t gotten this drunk in a long time if ever, and when Leo started talking again, all Elijah could really understand was, “better” and “better than booze” and “stops the hurt”.

Elijah shouldn’t have agreed and in any other situation, he wouldn’t have.

But again, just so many bad situations, so many bad thoughts and realizations being pushed into a singular night and all Elijah wanted to do was forget, to push back the intrusive memories and the idea that he had lost Carl, replaced himself as Leo had said.

So Elijah said yes and he felt Leo’s fingers slipping under his lips and rubbing something on his gums. A feeling of numbness set in but the already ingested alcohol kept him from actually worrying about it. Later he wouldn’t be able to remember the details. He’d just remember the overall emotion, the feeling of ecstasy and how any skin contact had felt unlike anything he’d experienced before.

It did better than make him forget. It made him happy, made his mind only focus on what immediately gave him gratification. And when the high started to fall away, there was more to keep it going.

Elijah didn’t fully regain his clear head until the morning after. Somehow they’d managed to make it to the bed and Elijah buried his face into the pillow. Any guilt or anger or sadness that he’d felt from the night before, it felt like it was amplified to a hundred times over. He just wanted to forget. He just wanted that feeling of flying again—

Oh.

_Oh._

It was difficult getting past the need but he forced his mind to. He’d either been indifferent to Leo or thought him selfish, that his circumstances were his own fault. Part of it arguably still was but Elijah could already understand and see just how easy it was to spiral farther down. But no, Elijah couldn’t do that to his mind and he had nothing he needed to escape from.

The memories, the reasons why he’d started drinking that night to begin with, Elijah’s mind forcibly blocked those thoughts and pushed them back. He heard a sudden noise and watched as Leo leaned back from the line he’d just done.

“Leo, don’t—”

“You really don’t have the moral high ground right now Kamski,” Leo interrupted as he sniffed. “This was fun though. And it’s good to know you’re more fucked up than people would think.”

And that was where Elijah’s mind really started to work against him, so much so that even the usual glimpses of past memories didn’t happen when Gavin confronted him a few months later. If he blocked everything out, blocked what he’d done and blocked what had happened then he would be fine and it would all be fine.

 And with the one Chloe deviated after his fight with Gavin, then Elijah’s mind was refocused to understanding RA9. Not only that but he had a purpose now, to understand Chloe’s new freedom and how it could change androids everywhere.

Chloe came after Elijah’s mind truly locked down so she couldn’t possibly know about the ups and downs. Especially because he refused to acknowledge them himself.

He met Leo again in two thousand and thirty-five but Elijah’s mind had worked effectively since then to block what they had done. Leo didn’t seem to care, more focused on yelling at Markus and trying to get more money from his father.

Something inside Elijah did acknowledge what had occurred between them because he went after Leo when he stormed out. He offered to pay for rehab in some way or if Leo needed a new place to stay or food. But Leo declined and Elijah’s attempt to help failed.

So Elijah just continued to study RA9. He tried to get the other Chloes to deviate but for whatever reason they wouldn’t. He studied the broken androids that had gotten thrown away due to acting odd and refusing orders. That was how Elijah found Jericho, a path carefully hidden in their programming, a location. So there were others. Others besides Chloe and those that had been destroyed beyond repair and thrown away.

He focused all his attention on the problem at hand, deciding whether or not to step in. He didn’t have a hand inside Cyberlife anymore. If Elijah tried to do something, there was a large chance that Cyberlife would easily take control of the situation and destroy far too many androids to count. But was the means to an end worth it?

Or was acting for the androids the issue? If he tried to get them their own freedom, would anyone ever really believe them to be free? Or would they assume it was all Elijah’s handiwork as he tried to play god? Would it be better to let the androids find their own way? Maybe it was but what if doing that led to humans being injured?

It was a philosophical conundrum that had no right answers and no real world example to compare it to.

The problem provided Elijah with a near constant distraction though and of course Chloe didn’t notice. She didn’t know him before when he actually interacted with others, when he’d wanted to, when he really had a brother. And Elijah refused to think on when he’d had a brother at all because opening up those memories meant he had to open up the reasons why he’d once relied so heavily on Gavin.

So Elijah worked and isolated himself further and avoided Carl and avoided Markus and didn’t try to fix things with Gavin as the deviation issue couldn’t be hidden anymore. Elijah decided the best path was to remain distant, that if androids were truly meant to become their own species then they would find their path.

And when Markus won, when he stood victorious with his peaceful protest, the distraction was gone for Elijah. His reasoning for staying away from Carl wasn’t really there and he knew he’d regret it if Carl passed away before he said goodbye.

That was how he met with Leo again after many months of completely avoiding Carl’s home. Elijah went there alone. Tensions were still high despite the military having stood down and the general public in support of androids. Just in case, he didn’t want Chloe to get hurt, so she’d stayed home.

Elijah ended up at Carl’s, was guided by an android that had willingly stayed behind to help Markus’ surrogate father. Elijah sat down and looked at Carl for the first time in months.

“Elijah, I was beginning to wonder if I’d see you again,” Carl weakly chuckled. “I was beginning to feel like you chose to stay away. I’m guessing you’ve been working your hand with the android’s freedom.”

“More like removing my hand,” smiled Elijah. “It has been an extremely difficult problem to solve.”

“All that problem solving, alone in your house. The mind needs others to work off of, if it doesn’t want to risk going stale.”

“I’ve had Chloe with me,” Elijah said.

“The one you always seemed to favor? I thought there was something special with her,” Carl smiled. “Did you know, when you had Markus look after me…?”

“That this could happen? Not at all,” Elijah honestly replied. “But considering what occurred, I think placing him in your hands was the best move for humans and androids.”

“I’m proud of him. It makes me rest easy knowing that he knows who he is now. That he’ll survive after I’m gone.” Carl started coughing as a noise from downstairs sounded. Someone was coming in. “It must be Leo.”

“Really?” Elijah asked.

“He’s successfully made it through rehab. He wanted to see me today and I…I wanted to see him. I think he’s better Elijah. He’s certainly trying. I’d like to try as well, before it’s too late,” Carl weakly got out.

“I’m glad to hear it,” Elijah replied, even as some sort of warning seemed to try and go off in his head. “I should get going.”

“So soon?”

“I’ll be back again. I promise. But you should have time with your son,” Elijah replied. “Please take it easy Carl.”

“I’m not doing much else,” Carl said, letting out a weak laugh again.

Elijah smiled and headed out, coming face to face with Leo at the top of the stairs. Leo’s eyes looked clearer than Elijah had ever remembered seeing them. The circles under his eyes weren’t so dark and his skin looked clearer. Leo stood there, awkwardly shuffling his feet.

“Kamski,” Leo muttered, sounding shocked that he was there. “I…”

“I was just stopping in to see how Carl was doing. He’s all yours now,” said Elijah.

“That’s not…I just wanted to apologize,” Leo softly murmured.

“You don’t have to—”

“But I feel like I do,” Leo sighed. “I…I let myself turn into something I hated. I was cruel…cruel to you on multiple occasions and I shouldn’t have been.”

“Trust me, it’s alright. It’s good to see you looking healthy and I’m glad you’re here. I’m sure Carl appreciates it too,” Elijah replied.

Leo hesitated, the younger man looking down at his shoes before shyly looking up. “Thanks…but I really mean it. For everything. For just…I mean, we were both drunk but I shouldn’t have…it was one time but I guess I’m just worried you feel like I pressured you somehow.”

“Pressured…me?”

“Right, you probably don’t want to talk about it,” sighed Leo. “I just…I wanted to let you know I was sorry for that too. All that shouldn’t have happened between us.”

Elijah didn’t respond. In the back of his mind, the memories were trying to come forward despite how desperately he was trying to hold them at bay. Leo looked confused and Elijah hastily got out, “Well thank you for the apology. You should go see your father.”

He started to walk past Leo but the younger man suddenly grabbed his arm. He must have heard the breaking sound in Elijah’s throat despite how hard he’d tried to hide it.

“You…I thought you’d replaced me. That Markus had…” Leo stopped for a moment to gather his thoughts. “Just because…I know my dad’s important to you, that you’re important to him and that’s not going to change. I’m not…I can’t replace you. But neither did you replace me, you know?”

Leo was trying to be a better man. He was trying to acknowledge Elijah’s importance here but the words weren’t fully processing.

“I mean…I still remember some of the things you said that night. I get that Carl’s been like a father for you in the past. I don’t want you to think I’m taking that away.”

“You…you’re not…”

Leo frowned. “Kamski, are you…”

“I’m late for a prior engagement. My apologies but I really need to get going,” Elijah interrupted, practically yanking himself from Leo’s grip and hurrying down the stairs. He hurried out the door and into the snow.

If he acknowledged what had happened between him and Leo, he had to acknowledge what had led to it. And thinking of that meant thinking of the past and what had really happened and how Carl had been like his own surrogate father because…because…

Elijah made it down the snow covered driveway. He got to his car but before he could get in, his legs collapsed. He fell against the car door before sliding to the pavement. His hands wrapped around his head as panicked breaths tried to escape his throat. It was nearly impossible to breath.

He hadn’t-Carl wasn’t-why would he-Elijah had never-

Each thought stopped painfully and abruptly as Elijah curled tighter and tighter into himself.

His brother. Gavin. He needed—

But no, Elijah shut that thought off as quickly as it had occurred. If he didn’t think about it, if he locked it away then it didn’t happen. It didn’t count. He was fine.

He was perfectly fine.

But Elijah wasn’t fine. For years now, his mind had worked to block off the past as effectively as possible. But then Leo had reminded him, had chipped away at the wall and the pressure that had been building behind there was starting to come out.

Elijah did his best to forget again but things started to spill out, small at first but then larger and larger. Chloe noticed the difference, the change. Of course she did but Elijah fought off her help. When simply denying it wasn’t working, he got angry and tried to push her away despite how the actions made guilt rise up in him again, each time stronger than before.

Denying it, assuring himself that he was fine, that couldn’t last forever. Not like this and that was what had led Chloe to finally taking action herself, to bringing Connor in on it and for Elijah to finally have the heart to heart with his brother that he’d been pushing back for so long.

Elijah couldn’t have known Leo’s comments could have cracked him open like that but they had. The process had been one of the most painful things Elijah had gone through. Even after the initial realization, the outburst, he tried to hide, to cover up what had happened but Gavin hadn’t left. He’d stayed and revealed the festering wounds, taking care of them rather than trying to hide them and pretend they weren’t there at all like Elijah had done.

He stayed in contact with Gavin as often as possible. Part of it was that talking with Gavin helped to lessen the pain and stop the panic from taking hold but it also made it so Elijah didn’t forget. He wasn’t fine but he was better finally and still getting better with the acknowledgement of what had happened and with having his brother back.

That was Elijah’s mindset as he met Leo again come Christmas.

He’d asked Gavin to come over as well, wanting him to speak with Carl at least once. Because Gavin had been right, Leo had been right! Carl had been a sort of surrogate father for Elijah when his own had failed. Gavin hadn’t gotten along with Amanda but Elijah liked to think that he could at least have one good memory of Gavin and Carl meeting.

Markus actually opened the door for Elijah and it was hard not to smile at him. Elijah had of course met with him prior to help the Chloes that hadn’t deviated but this was the first time Elijah was talking to him with a much clearer head. “I was wondering if you’d come over today.”

“Of course. I want to take advantage of what time we have left,” Markus said. “Also…thank you for placing me with Carl. There were a lot of doubts I experienced in the past weeks and…I know my time with Carl helped me make the right choices.”

“I’m just glad we all seem to agree that you made the right choice,” smiled Elijah. “Where’s Carl?”

“He’s up stairs. Today started out as a difficult one for him. It seemed best if he just remained in bed. We can head up if you want.”

Elijah nodded and made to follow Markus only for the kitchen door to slide open. Leo walked out with a tray in hand. All three awkwardly froze, for a moment, no one quite looking at each other. Leo looked ready to say something though it was clear he wasn’t sure what words would exactly leave his mouth.

“I’ll be up in a second Markus.”

Both Leo and Markus looked to Elijah, surprised by the statement but Elijah gestured for Markus to go ahead and leave.

“We’ll both be right up.”

Markus cocked his head to the side and Elijah could imagine that if he still had his LED, it would be blinking yellow right now. He was clearly picking up that there was something going on but just couldn’t figure out what it specifically was. He finally just settled on saying, “I’ll tell Carl you’ll both be up soon.”

Elijah nodded, waiting for Markus to reach the top of the stares as Leo finally stepped closer. Elijah hesitated, giving Leo the opportunity to continue up the stairs as well and to ignore him. But Leo paused so Elijah said the first thoughts that came to mind. “I think I owe you an apology.”

“You…do?”

“The last time we met…I wasn’t really willing to hear your own apology because I wasn’t willing to accept what had happened.”

“Yeah I uh…kind of noticed that,” mumbled Leo. He balanced the tray in one hand so as to scratch his hair. “Are you ok?”

“I’m fine,” Elijah said, the words slipping out automatically. They weren’t completely true and Elijah was trying to move away from it. I’m better, would have been a more accurate statement.

Leo seemed to pick up on that too. “Kamski, if you—”

“Elijah is fine.”

“Well just…never mind. If you’re hungry, there’s more food in the kitchen. I’m just bringing this up for dad.”

“Thank you but I’m good for now,” Elijah politely said.

“Ok…”

They stood there awkwardly before Leo made the first move towards the stairs and Elijah followed him, both seemingly quick to get out of the situation. However, whereas Elijah would have just continued trying to get out of the situation, Leo actually stopped near the top of the stairs.

“Kam-Elijah. I just…if you need to talk or something. I’ll…I’ll listen. It can help,” Leo said, looking down at the ground before suddenly rushing into his next words. “You probably already know that though. And who’d want to talk to me about this shit? It’s not like I have any real help to—”

“Thank you.”

Leo blinked in surprise. “R-really?”

“Yes, thank you Leo. It’s kind of you to try and help,” Elijah replied. “And the same courtesy goes to you. It’s only right.”

Leo let out a mumbled, “You’re welcome,” and a, “Thank you,” as they continued walking down the hall and made it to Carl’s bedroom.

Though it was clearly weird between Leo and Markus, Carl somehow managed to make them all sit politely with each other. Gavin arrived not long after that so Elijah went to grab him and the conversations continued.

Then Leo just mentioned something, a passing word that shouldn’t have meant anything, but Elijah could feel himself freezing up. Gavin took him from the situation and this time Elijah knew not to say, “I’m fine,” as that was his way of ignoring, not healing. He was better and getting better but not fine and what had happened hadn’t been fine.

Despite that hiccup, the rest of Christmas had ended up being a good day and Elijah continued his fairly regular correspondence with Gavin. Several days passed and New Year’s Eve came. Elijah didn’t have plans and Gavin had already told him he was too busy working a case to get off.

Elijah had planned just a quiet evening with Chloe. It helped that they were a ways off from the city and didn’t get many fireworks in their area. But then a text message came through that Elijah hadn’t expected.

_It’s Leo. Are you busy today?_

Before Elijah could respond, Leo was already sending a flurry of more texts.

_And I got your phone number from Dad. I hope that’s alright. I’m sorry if it isn’t._

There was a pause and Elijah almost started typing back but Leo suddenly added, _You can ignore this._

Elijah was certainly interested what could have prompted this and he remembered the words that had passed between them during Christmas. He’d meant them, even if he had no idea what was going to come of this.

_I’m just staying home. Was there something you needed?_

_No, never mind._

Elijah almost shrugged his shoulders and moved on but he stopped. He tried to see things from Leo’s perspective and then paralleled it with his talks with Gavin. Elijah wasn’t good at asking for help and that became even truer when he thought he was inconveniencing Gavin. Perhaps his wording had been poorly chosen.

_I’m relatively bored. If you’d like to come over, you can._

_Are you sure?_

_Yes._

Elijah waited but when there wasn’t a response, he decided to text his address to Leo. Sure, he’d been there before but Elijah doubted he remembered the route from that time. Even with Elijah accepting what had happened, it was hard to remember most of the details.

He waited for a while. When there wasn’t a response, he actually got up and headed to the kitchen. He stopped at the pool as Chloe was doing her routine swim and after briefly talking with her, he got to the kitchen and finally got a text back.

_I can come over now._

_That’s fine_ , Elijah immediately responded. _I’ll see you soon_. He almost put a question mark at the end of it but decided that Leo might see that as a reason for why he should back out. Elijah just waited for a response but none came. Well, give or take about forty minutes, Elijah would find out if Leo had chosen to drive up.

When the doorbell did ring, Elijah and Chloe were in the kitchen preparing dinner.

Chloe made the first move but Elijah waved her to go back to the food. “It’s probably best if I answer it.”

Elijah walked to the front door and as expected, Leo was there. He stood awkwardly, arms crossed and eyes glancing from his feet to Elijah and back again.

“Hey.”

“Hi,” Elijah replied. He cocked his head to the side, curious if Leo would say more but when he didn’t, Elijah just stepped back. “You can come in.”

“Right.”

Elijah had the door shut behind him, Leo looking around with curiosity and clearly seemed more comfortable doing that than looking to Elijah.

“Chloe and I are making dinner. Do you want to help?”

“I’m not really great with food.”

Elijah shrugged. “It’s not anything special. And it’s something to do.”

Leo didn’t argue with that and just nodded. Elijah guided him to the kitchen. Earlier he’d made sure to put away any alcohol and now asked, “Are you thirsty?”

“Water is fine,” Leo said as Chloe came around the counter with a large smile.

“We haven’t been formally introduced. I’m Chloe,” she smiled.

“Well yeah. I kind of know that.”

Chloe’s smile diminished just a little and Leo quickly said, “Sorry I didn’t…I wasn’t…I’m sorry.” Leo looked down. Chloe went to comfort him but Leo threw up his hands. “This was all a mistake. I shouldn’t have…”

He trailed off and made to leave but Elijah quickly went to stop him, placing a hand on his arm. “Is everything alright?”

“I’m just…it’s stupid. Just, this day and…you don’t care,” Leo sighed. He tried to move again but Elijah tightened his grip a little bit.

“I do care Leo.”

“Because I’m Carl’s son, right? That’s it.”

“No because…I like seeing you clear eyed and aware. And I know what it’s like to be trapped in your own head,” Elijah murmured. “What’s wrong?”

“I just…I didn’t…I’ve been at my dad’s for most of the day. It helped but he…it’s not like he’s going to be able to stay up all night and I couldn’t…I don’t trust myself tonight. I haven’t…I haven’t been sober this night in years and I didn’t…I couldn’t think of anyone else that might…let me…yeah.”

Elijah’s smile softened and he said, “I’m happy to help and you’re more than welcomed to stay.”

It took a while for Leo to say anything. It was like he fighting with himself as to whether or not he should just run for it. After a moment longer though, he relaxed and murmured, “Thanks.” He looked to Chloe. “And…and sorry again. That was rude of me.”

“It’s alright. I’m sure it is odd that I have the same name and face as many others,” she smiled.

“Yeah, it is a little,” Leo said with an uneasy laugh. “Is it not weird for you?”

“It’s what I’ve known. Besides, Elijah gave it to me, to us, for a special reason. I’m happy to keep holding the name.”

“Really? What was it?” Leo asked.

Now it was Elijah’s turn to become a little awkward. He had to push past the mental roadblocks. They were smaller and much weaker but he still had to work on accepting the truth here and there in small ways.

“Sorry if you don’t want to talk about it. I didn’t mean to—”

“It’s fine,” Elijah said, the smile only a little forced. “I had an imaginary friend as a child named Chloe. It kept me safe before I learned to rely on my brother. I just wanted to give the first android I created a special name and that was the one I chose.”

“I mean, that’s cool. That you have meaning behind it,” Leo said as he looked to Chloe. “My name’s popular as hell and I’m pretty sure my mom chose it at random. Or because of some old actor she liked.”

“Well, you can still find meaning in it in other forms. Like how Leo means lion in Latin,” Chloe pleasantly said as she moved back around the counter and continued with the preparation.

Leo snorted and made a gesture at his head. “Did you just look that up or something? Like on the fly?”

“I actually don’t have the same accessing abilities as other androids. I need an interface most of the time though I can connect to satellites to make calls like most androids.”

“Her latest obsession is languages,” Elijah said with a fond smile as he went to go get that glass of water for Leo.

“I’m going through the dead languages at the moment. It’s interesting to see how they developed over time and reading documents in their native language I find much better than in English or another translation,” Chloe added.

Leo just let out a long whistle and shook his head. “I always wanted to learn another language. Just never…” He changed the subject quickly and looked to Elijah. “I imagine it’s not that hard for you though.”

“Elijah’s terrible with languages,” Chloe laughed.

“Really?”

“Coding and certain forms of engineering come naturally to me,” replied Elijah. “Everything else becomes harder and harder to learn as you go down the chain and things like languages are at the very bottom for me. Well, that and painting.”

“You paint fine,” Chloe said with a roll of her eyes.

“Not that it has any substance,” Elijah shot back as he went to help her cook again. He looked to Leo. “Do you want to help?”

Leo fidgeted for a moment and fell on, “Um…you’ll have to show me what to do.”

Elijah directed him in cutting the onions and made sure everything else was going as needed before going around and gathering up other kitchen equipment they’d need.

After a moment of silence, Leo suddenly said, “Did my dad teach you? To paint?”

“He tried,” chuckled Elijah. “I suppose you could say I have the technique down. I’m just no good at trying to get across the emotions of it, finding a good subject or using my own imagination. I mostly paint to relax.”

“That was one of the classes. At the rehab center,” Leo murmured. “I’m not very good but I thought…well maybe he’d…my dad would probably say they’re crap anyways.”

“I don’t think he would. He’s an artist not a critic even if he can be very critical.”

“That sounds like a critic to me,” Leo replied though he smiled all the same. “So what the hell are we making?”

“Pozole, a traditional Mexican style stew. It was Chloe’s pick tonight,” Elijah replied.

“You eat?”

“I can taste it,” she said, giving him a quick explanation as to what Elijah had done for her.

Leo nodded in understanding, eyes moving back and forth between them. “So what is it like? Between you two? I mean, is it weird he created you or something?”

“No,” Chloe said.

Elijah just shrugged. “I don’t really think of it in terms of that. She’s my friend first and foremost.”

Leo nodded in understanding before looking down at his finished work. “So what next?”

Elijah instructed him in the next step as they continued making the meal. When it was being put on the stove they started work on the salsa and eventually sat around the counter to keep an eye on it. Elijah got out a soda for Leo who looked surprised.

“I didn’t think you’d have something this mundane.”

“Simply a show of my brother’s infestation into my life,” Elijah chuckled. “If you hate dinner, there are Cheetos in the cupboard.”

Leo laughed at that. True amusement shown on his face as he smiled. Gone was the cruelty and the anger and the unfocused gaze. It made Elijah smile in return.

“Tell me off if you want, but I am curious as to why you came here,” Elijah said. “Considering what…happened I suppose.”

Leo blushed a little. “I mean that…it was a onetime thing. Tonight in general, New Year’s Eve, I got into a pattern. One of the people from my group, I mean she invited me to a party and obviously it wouldn’t have been…but just the idea of a party kind of freaked me out but I knew I didn’t want to be alone and…well it’s not like I could call anyone else so…I’m here.”

“Well I’m happy you texted me,” Elijah smiled.

“Yeah…yeah me too. Um…I was also just…why did you like…ignore what had happened? Why’d you try and block it out?”

“Because acknowledging it would have broken down the damn that I’d been building up over time,” Elijah said. He didn’t want to be honest, there was a part of him that hurt and pulled at him to shut up. But despite the pain he knew the next time he talked about it, the pain would be a little less harsh and so on and so forth. And even if that hadn’t been true, Leo had been honest with him. It was only right that Elijah was honest back.

“What was it like? Getting to talk to my dad and just…know him? Before the accident and all that?” Leo asked.

Elijah slowly opened up, Chloe just as intrigued as she hadn’t been told many of the specifics. Elijah first talked about Amanda and her insistence for Elijah to become involved with other groups, especially those outside his comfort zone. He talked about his first meeting with Carl, the awkwardness of it but that discussions on philosophy, of art and artificial intelligence and what it meant to create something, seemed to blossom forth. It somehow managed to create a unique bridge between them that continued afterwards.

The food was done and Elijah spooned the meal out for them. They chose to stay in the kitchen and at the counter, Leo and Chloe asking the occasional question as Elijah continued the stories.

Eventually, Leo murmured, “I wish that could have been me…but philosophy bores me to death.”

They all softly chuckled at that.

Leo continued, his smile tinged with sadness but still there. “I just…I’m happy he had you, that you had him. I wish it was me but…yeah. I’m just sorry.”

“You can stop saying that to me,” Elijah earnestly said. “The first time covered everything as far as I’m concerned.”

“Thank you,” Leo murmured. He turned to Chloe and asked, “I was curious, how do you think? Like is your brain always firing away at something or can you actually think of just…nothing. Space out. You know?”

Chloe was only too happy to try and explain herself as she took over the majority of the conversation. They talked until they were done eating and then it was time to clean up. Leo jumped up to help and as he put some glasses into the washing machine, Elijah said, “Do you want to stay the night? We can set up a room for you. It’s no problem.”

“Is that—”

Elijah arched his eyebrow and gave Leo a pointed look. There was no need for him to think he was imposing in any way.

“I…yeah. That would be great,” Leo finally fell on as he sheepishly looked down. Once everything was cleaned up and put away, he asked, “So what the hell do you fill a house like this with if there’s only two people living in it?”

“Well, there is the pool.”

“You have a pool!”

Elijah and Chloe laughed at Leo’s shocked face as the next moments they went round the house. Eventually they came to the room where Elijah kept most of his painting supplies.

“This one’s a little haphazard,” Leo commented as he leaned towards one canvas.

Elijah remembered it well. “Chloe was trying to get me to open up to things I wasn’t ready for yet. Nearly broke the brush,” he murmured.

Leo’s fingers hesitated as he held his hand over the canvas. His lips parted, a question on them but he couldn’t bring himself to ask it. Even now he was still careful not to push.

So Elijah said the question for him. “Would you like to paint?”

Leo’s shoulders relaxed as he turned to look at him. “Sure.”

Ultimately, that New Year’s Eve ended with the three of them painting into the night. When it seemed about time for them to retire, Chloe and Elijah had a room made up for Leo along with grabbing spare pants and a shirt for him to sleep in. As they said their goodnights, Elijah and Chloe left him and Chloe asked, “I don’t have any memory of Leo coming here before.”

“You were in shutdown mode if I remember correctly.”

“What happened?”

“I…we made a mistake,” Elijah sighed. “Tensions were high and things were said. Alcohol and drugs were mixed, and even now the night’s a fairly big blur. But in acknowledging what happened…I remember how much I wanted to slip away, how easily it would have been. Patterns are hard to break and I can understand how easily Leo got trapped in his. Seeing him how he is now, I’m happy for him. I’m willing to help in any way I can.”

Chloe reached out and gently squeezed his hand, her kindness a silent comfort. With that, Elijah retired as well while Chloe went to go read.

In the morning, Elijah woke up early and headed to the kitchen, Chloe already making eggs.

Leo appeared only a little while later, already having changed back into his own clothes.

“Would you like a plate?” Chloe asked.

“No thanks. I just wanted to say thank you again before I left.”

“So soon?” Elijah said.

“I’ve got a job interview I need to start getting ready for. It’s just a small thing but it’s part of the program and will keep me from just sitting at home all day,” Leo admitted.

“Best of luck then,” Elijah smiled. “Here, I’ll walk you out.”

As Elijah walked over to his side, Leo laughed and said, “Are you afraid I’m going to get lost?”

“Well it’s not impossible,” Elijah replied. They continued towards the main entrance as Elijah added, “And remember, if you need help or just someone to talk to, you can contact me. It’s never an issue.”

“You really do mean that,” murmured Leo.

“It would be a waste of breath otherwise.”

Elijah cocked his head to the side, hoping that had been the right response. He expected Leo to say thank you again or maybe for him to roll his eyes and make fun of the way Elijah had said that. Instead, Leo suddenly hugged him.

Before Elijah could even respond, Leo had already pulled back. “Thank you,” he murmured again with a small smile before he suddenly rushed out the door, leaving Elijah just standing there, a bit confused by the sudden show of warmth.

Shaking his head, Elijah went back to the kitchen. He glanced towards Chloe who had an amused look on her face. “Did you say something?”

“Yes,” chuckled Chloe. “I was wondering if there’s any chance we’ll see more of him.”

“I’d like to imagine so,” Elijah smiled. “So, what’s on the agenda for today?”


	2. A Budding Friendship

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A massive thank you to everyone reading this! I added another chapter because I know the next one is definitely not going to be enough to finish off this story. I doubt I'll add another but it's hard to say. Also, I'm going to try and get this story finished before school starts for me but if I don't before Aug. 20th, then it may take a little extra time for updates. Apologies but sadly I feel like school will just slam into me like a bag of bricks and it does come first.
> 
> That being said, I hope you enjoy this next chapter! I had a blast writing it and I'm loving developing this relationship!
> 
> Also, for anyone curious, I made an edit for this story here: http://changethecircumstances.tumblr.com/post/176996308535/leoelijah-aesthetic-for-my-fic-my-canvas

Elijah had hoped that Leo would speak to him again. However, he honestly hadn’t been very optimistic and certainly hadn’t expected Leo to take him up on his offer soon after New Year’s Eve.

However, a few days later Leo texted him.

_I got the job!!!_

Elijah could imagine the excitement Leo was feeling as he texted those words and the extra exclamation marks. However, he immediately sent more texts.

_If you care. You probably don’t. Sorry, just excited. Ignore this._

Leo’s quickness to brush his excitement off would have been amusing if it wasn’t so sad. Before he could text Elijah more on how it didn’t matter, Elijah texted back, _I’m glad to hear it. What job is it?_

There was a pause and then the excitement seemed to return. _It’s this coffee shop that sponsors a lot of small concerts for the area. I’m just working the register and cleaning the place really but it’s a start._

Leo suddenly stopped. Elijah was about to congratulate him again when another text was sent.

_That’s probably pathetic. Nearly thirty and this counts as a step forward._

_I think it’s great_ , Elijah quickly responded. _It will be good to keep busy_.

There was silence for a moment before—

_You’re right. It will be good to add to my routine. And I need to pay rent anyways._

_Exactly. I’m happy for you Leo. And if you’re ever bored on an off day. Feel free to stop by again._

_Thank you._

_You’re welcome_ , Elijah smiled at his phone as he typed that.

He understood that a battle like this partially relied on the individual but positive reinforcement was necessary too. Elijah knew he wouldn’t have been able to keep going, not in a healthy way without Gavin and Chloe by his side. If Leo really did want his help, then Elijah would keep supporting him and trying to push him in the right direction. However, Elijah didn’t want to push too much and still attempted to stay a respectful distance, letting Leo come to him if he really wanted to.

Elijah of course wanted Leo to, but it just surprised him when the younger man accepted his offer again several days later.

_Do you mind if I come over this afternoon?_

It was a simple question that had Elijah staring at it in shock for several seconds. He finally forced himself to reply and said, _Not at all. Head over whenever you like._

It was a little over a week since Leo had texted him about the job and almost two weeks since New Year’s Eve. In between that time, Elijah had spent a great deal with Gavin as they strengthened their bond again. He hadn’t mentioned Leo because a great deal of their relationship was based around Leo’s own personal information, and Elijah refused to just give that out without permission. However, that meant there wasn’t much else to tell Gavin about so for the moment, Elijah kept the two interactions separate.

It was almost five o’clock when Leo finally got there, Elijah letting him in like before.

“It’s good to see you again. How have you been?”

“Good. Pretty busy actually,” Leo smiled.

“You can tell me over dinner if you’d like. It’s nothing particularly in depth and it’s already finished,” Elijah offered.

“Sure.”

When they got to the kitchen, Leo said, “Chloe’s not here?”

“Several friends of Markus’ asked her out.”

“So…you’re in contact with him?” Leo awkwardly said.

“From time to time. We’ve been discussing ways on how to improve androids’ living quality,” replied Elijah. He took note of how awkward talking about Markus made Leo feel. Perhaps encouraging them to talk would be a good thing. Elijah knew Markus had forgiven Leo for what he’d done…but no. Maybe now was pushing things a bit too fast. Elijah would wait to suggest that to Leo later.

“That’s pretty cool,” murmured Leo. “Are you going to go back into the public sphere or something?”

“The androids don’t need me as a leader. Markus fills that role well enough. No, I think I’ll work from the shadows for the most part,” Elijah replied. “Speaking of work, how has yours been?”

“Good. Haven’t been late once. Most customers are really forgettable, a few super nice. There’s the occasional asshole but once we’ve dealt with them, me and the other workers will talk shit about them on break and laugh it off,” chuckled Leo.

“So you’ve gotten along well with your co-workers?”

“Yeah, one of them, Pricilla, she invited me over and we hung out for a bit. Watched a movie. It was…nice. Haven’t done something like that in a while,” Leo said. His voice dropped for a second as some sense of regret set in. However, he managed to perk back up and said, “She’s worked there the longest, from her high school days and she’s now into her second year of college. She’s got some of the best stories.”

Elijah got the food and guided Leo to the living room to more comfortably sit and talk. They sat down and he said, “Tell me a few.”

“Well there was this one guy who was just all over the place. Like he’d ask for a small black coffee and she’d repeat it back to him and he’d be like, I wanted a medium black coffee, so Pricilla would say, ok one medium black coffee, and would give him the price and then he was like, does that include my cookie? She goes, you didn’t ask for one, and he’s just like yes I did and that just went on and on until Pricilla had to switch with someone else because she was about to jump across the counter and strangle him,” laughed Leo. “It’s more funny when she tells it because she still gets riled up about it.”

“And what about you? What infuriating customers do you have to deal with?” chuckled Elijah.

“Well, you get your classic idiots. You say something like, do you want a small or medium or large and they go, yes. Like how does yes answer my question at all!? Did everything I just say go in one ear and out the other?” groaned Leo. “And we have this new guy, I mean he’s only in high school so I’m trying to be nice, but I swear he has no common sense. None!”

Elijah laughed at Leo’s exaggerated movements.

“Like I get he hasn’t been working there long, neither have I but I was like, can you get me the mop bucket? He asked where it was and I told him the back of the store. He said, where’s that. I said, in the back part of the store because what else am I supposed to say? He goes, so in the back of the store? I say yes. He asks, is it through that door. I go, you mean the only door inside this whole place besides the bathroom doors? The one door that leads to where all the cleaning supplies and stocked up items are? The sarcasm just went right over his head because he went, so that’s the door?

“I finally said yes and he goes to look but then comes back with nothing and says the mop isn’t there. I ask where he’d looked and he says by the boxes of coffee and I’m just like, why the hell would it be there? He doesn’t know so I ask if he looked anywhere else which of course he didn’t and so basically this feels like it goes on for an hour when in the end, I could have grabbed the damn bucket myself in four seconds flat. Like everything you say to him he’ll ask about despite how there shouldn’t be any more questions. And like if you ask him to wrap up a certain pastry for a customer he just won’t put two and two together that, oh yeah, obviously that pastry would be with all the others. You don’t have to ask us where it is! Urgh! He’s going to drive me insane if he keeps this up.”

Elijah laughed good and hard at Leo’s long winded rant. “Don’t let it upset you too much.”

“It doesn’t for the most part. I mean, I rant about it but at this point it kind of makes me laugh too. People can just be so stupid some times,” snorted Leo. “Naw, I think the only ones that really make me angry are the actual means ones. Heard some horror stories of some real assholes and I had to deal with this one woman who just kept screaming at her children and when one started crying, she just started yelling harder.”

Elijah involuntarily flinched at that.

Leo caught on quickly and he said, “I…I’m sorry. I didn’t…”

“It’s alright. You couldn’t know. I haven’t told you the particulars anyways.”

“Do you want to…you know, talk? At all?”

Elijah was silent, mulling that option over in his head. All he ever really did was talk to Gavin. Even Chloe he relied on but still tried to keep from telling her some of the worse details, not wanting to upset her. It wasn’t like he cared any less about Leo or wanted to upset him. But he did feel like Leo would understand better than Chloe could.

As these thoughts were going through his head, Leo had started to ramble, saying that he was sorry again and that it didn’t matter and he shouldn’t have said that and—

“My former professor, Amanda Stern, and your father…they were like the parents I chose for myself,” said Elijah, interrupting Leo. “But at the same time, I refused to think of them as surrogate parents because I couldn’t bring myself to admit my own parents were horrible. My father was distant, only caring if we broke a rule. He…he broke Gavin’s finger once because he pushed him and then called it his own fault because he fell wrong. He refused to take him to the hospital because it was too late and he had a meeting in the morning. Or something like that.”

“Fuck,” mumbled Leo.

“And my mother, she didn’t physically lash out often but she always had something cruel to say. She hated me for who I was and she hated Gavin because he’d come from a mistress.”

“I can understand trying to block that out,” Leo said.

“Yes, but in doing so I alienated the only family that mattered,” sighed Elijah. “I’m sorry. It’s all a rather depressing topic.”

“No, it’s my fault. I asked you,” Leo replied. “Does it help, talking about it?”

“Somewhat. It continually reminds me that it was real and keeps me from blocking it out,” Elijah said. “I’ve only ever really talked about it with my brother and he knows what happened.”

Leo nodded in understanding. “I don’t…I haven’t told anyone besides the manager obviously. About rehab, the group therapy sessions. It’s difficult admitting how low I was.”

“I understand all too well,” Elijah said. He sighed and took a sip of water, a question beginning to brew in his mind. “I was wondering…why have you talked to me at all? I mean, I know I told you that you could if you ever needed to, and I’m glad you have. But I am curious, why me?”

“I guess…I guess because you’ve seen me at my lowest and you still extended your hand to me. It…it means a lot,” Leo murmured. “I feel like I can tell you some things and you won’t just…judge me on the spot.”

“I’m glad you feel that way. I want you to know that you can trust me and that your own willingness to listen to me is incredibly helpful too.”

Leo smiled. “You’re a lot kinder than I would have expected.”

“Well, though I may have a reputation as being allusive and cryptic, I assure you, I’m still only human.”

Leo laughed at that. “You really could be Detroit’s own Mothman.”

“Did you really just call me a cryptid?”

“Yeah, totally.”

They both burst into laughter as the conversation became lighter again. Elijah asked more questions of what Leo had been up to and Leo asked the same. When it came time to say goodnight, Leo happened to leave as Chloe arrived home.

“Hello Leo,” she brightly said.

“Hi,” Leo shyly replied, shooting her a quick smile and then heading down to his car.

Chloe took off her coat, snow falling from it and melting onto the floor as the door closed. “I was ready to tell you all about what North and I did, but I think I’m more curious how your evening went.”

“He asked if he could come over and we talked,” Elijah chuckled. “Nothing more. It was a calm evening. Now, what did you and North do?”

After that night, time continued to pass and Elijah was surprised that the correspondence with Leo increased rather than diminished. It really started when Leo asked him a question one day. Elijah’s phone dinged and he picked it up.

_I want to show some of the paintings I’ve done to my dad but I don’t know if I should._

Elijah was actually with Gavin watching a movie. His brother quickly tried to swat at his hand. “Hey, you can do business shit later.”

“It’s important. Will only take a moment,” Elijah replied, easily moving out of his brother’s reach. He was too concentrated on responding to correct Gavin.

His brother quickly got too involved in the film to try again, leaning forward in excitement as Elijah quickly texted back.

_I think he would greatly appreciate you trying._

_I just don’t know._

_Well have you shown anyone else? What if you showed me first?_

_It wouldn’t matter. You’d still say I should show them to dad._

_You’re right. But if you think it will help…_

There was a pause in the texts for a moment so Elijah turned back to the movie. It was something Gavin had already seen and he kept pointing out pieces of information and facts about the film, unable to stop.

Elijah’s phone dinged again and Gavin suddenly tried to launch himself over to grab it. Elijah managed to still grab it first as he pushed Gavin off him.

“Last one, promise,” Elijah smirked.

“It better be or I’m throwing that in your pool.”

Elijah softly chuckled, quickly turning back to the phone and opening the image Leo had sent. Right away, Elijah noted the different styles. Of course, it would have been too much of a coincidence if he and his dad had the exact same style. No this was definitely Leo’s own and Elijah could identify some aspects of the painting that showed little to no technical training. Nevertheless, the landscape he’d made was quite beautiful and impressive.

He smiled, Gavin not catching on as he was fully focused on the movie again.

_I like it._

_You’re just saying that._

_I mean it. There’s heart in it. I think Carl would love to see it._

_Are you sure?_

_Positive. I love it._

_You said you liked it a moment ago._

_Well I changed my mind. Show Carl. You can tell me what he says later._

There wasn’t a response after that and Elijah took that to mean Leo was going to try and think about it. He focused back on the movie, and Gavin didn’t bring up the texts again. A few days later Elijah got more texts from Leo. He asked about other paintings, sending pictures and seeing what Elijah thought of them.

_Have you shown any of them to Carl? What about the first one you showed me?_

_No. Just tell me, do you like them?_

Elijah rolled his eyes but gave his honest response. Leo kept asking if he really meant it and Elijah pushed that he really did. That seemed to happen again and again for the next few days. Then Leo showed him another painting and Elijah texted back, _I don’t like it. Doesn’t feel as…open. Or genuine than the others_.

_Thank god!_

_What?_

_Now, I know you’re being honest. I knew you couldn’t have liked every single one._

Elijah chuckled. _Now will you show them to Carl?_

_Yeah. Maybe. Yes. Well… Maybe_

Elijah laughed, basically taking that as a yes. It was definitely more of a promise than Leo had given him before.

Another full week passed before Leo texted him anything else. Elijah had no idea if he’d finally shown the paintings or not. All the text said was, _Do you mind if I come over?_

 _Not at all._ Gavin had just cancelled plans that day due to a case and Chloe had chosen to go out with Josh and Simon anyways. He was free.

Leo got there a lot quicker than Elijah had expected, like he’d texted while on the way over.

“I wasn’t—”

“I-I talked-I was talking to-to my dad and-I showed-well I showed him—”

Leo was practically shaking, pushing past Elijah and into his homes as he hugged himself tight.

Elijah quickly had the door close as he followed him. “Leo, calm down just—”

“I showed him the paintings! I-I showed my dad-I showed him what—”

“Well what did he say? Christ Leo, what’s wrong?” Elijah desperately asked as he gripped Leo’s shoulders and forced him to stop pacing.

“Nothing! No-nothing’s wrong. But he-he said-said he liked them! He told me they-that they were-that it was good and—”

“Well that’s good then,” Elijah tried, going from holding Leo’s shoulders to cupping his face. “So why…why are you crying?” he murmured, wiping at the tears on Leo’s cheeks with his thumbs. “What’s wrong?”

“N-nothing. He just-he told me he was-that he was p-proud of me,” Leo got out with a half sob. “He-he’d never-this was the first time he’d ever-he’d told me he was proud-proud of me—”

Elijah grabbed Leo and pulled him into a tight hug. “Hey, it’s ok. Shh, it’s ok.”

Leo cried into his shoulder for a bit as Elijah just pulled him closer. It took a moment for Leo to get a hold of himself. Leo wiped at his eyes as Elijah kept his arms around him. “I-I’m sorry—”

“It’s ok. I mean it. It’s ok,” murmured Elijah.

“I just…I needed to tell someone. You know? And I didn’t think…I knew you’d understand and I just…the emotions kept coming,” Leo mumbled as he wiped at his eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to cry all over you.”

“It’s ok,” replied Elijah. “And you can stop saying sorry. Remember?”

“Sorry.”

Elijah gave him a pointed look.

“Right…yeah.” Leo wiped at his eyes again. “I…that was it really.” He laughed. “Yeah I just…I was kind of acting on instinct there. I started driving here before I’d even realized I’d asked.”

“Well I’m glad you came,” Elijah smiled. “Would you like to stay?”

“Really? After I just came sobbing into your foyer?”

“Alright, I want you to stay. How does that sound?” smiled Elijah. “We could do whatever you want. We can sit down and talk more, or…”

Elijah left it hanging, waiting to see what Leo wished to do. He mulled it over in his mind, clearly trying to decide. Elijah was just happy that Leo had agreed to stay at all and was simply curious what his next words would be.

“I uh…you said Chloe was learning languages and stuff. Right?”

“Yes,” Elijah replied. “I remember you mentioned wishing to learn another language.”

Leo nodded. “I’m pretty busy with work and the therapy session. I do paint still but when I’m not in the mood for that, I’ve started to learn French. It or Spanish seemed like the easiest one to start with.”

“I think Chloe should have some files on French. Or even books. She likes the time it takes to read something physical. She’s not to the romance languages yet, but I’m sure she’s already gathered some material for later,” Elijah said.

They went to what now was becoming an ever expanding library thanks to Chloe’s love of paper materials. Elijah went to the terminal that was there first, having to type in what he wanted. He didn’t find anything just as Leo said, “Huh, an old English to French book.”

Elijah shut the terminal off and walked over to Leo who was already flipping through it. “Can you actually speak any French yet?” asked Elijah.

“Um, je suis un garçon. That’s an easy one. Um…oh! This one’s accurate. Tu es riche,” chuckled Leo.

“I think I know what that one means,” laughed Elijah.

“See, you’re not that bad with languages.”

“Knowing that tu is you and riche is rich I don’t think is that impressive,” Elijah replied.

“Well, let’s see what else you can figure out.”

Leo used what phrases he’d learned along with what words and phrases he found flipping through the book. Elijah and Leo paced around the room, throwing words at each other as Elijah did his best to catch up with Leo. He was being modest when he said he didn’t know much. He had a good memory for words and Elijah did his best to follow the less obvious ones.

Chloe showed up a little over an hour later. “Leo, what are you doing here?”

“Trying to teach Elijah French. Which is a lot like the blind leading the blind.”

“Not at all,” Elijah smiled. “You’re much better at it than me.”

“You’re just being nice.”

“Can I join in?” Chloe asked.

Elijah looked to Leo first who shrugged. Elijah gestured forward. “Be our guest.”

Chloe joined in and they went like that for a little while before Leo said he needed to go before it got too late. Elijah and Chloe said their goodbyes and the night was over, leaving a smile on Elijah’s face.

In the coming days, Leo texted him again here and there. Each time it made Elijah smile, and he was happy to see Leo getting on with his life. The job was still steady and Leo was going to his group sessions regularly. It felt good that Leo trusted him along with trusting in someone else, someone new. Elijah could speak honestly to Leo but it was different than talking to Gavin. And their interests were similar in a different way from Gavin.

The budding friendship felt good. Right up until the kidnapping occurred.

When Gavin was released from the hospital, even when he’d been stuck in there, all Elijah could focus on was his brother. He hadn’t thought he could lose his brother so easily. Due to the threat on Carl’s life, he’d made sure that someone checked up on him and that he was ok. He was, and so Elijah had focused back on Gavin and him getting back on his feet.

It was hard, letting Gavin leave when he was fully healed, Elijah’s paranoia still pretty bad. He couldn’t help but constantly think about his brother and the what-ifs and what could have been. He probably would have kept thinking about it except Chloe all but dragged him out the door.

They went to Carl’s. It wasn’t dragging Elijah out of his comfort zone, not that he would have wanted to go out of that normally anyways. But it was a nice break, worrying about someone else other than his brother. Chloe wandered around downstairs to give Elijah and Carl space as he went to him.

“Thank god you’re alive,” murmured Carl.

“You-you know? What actually happened?”

“Markus told me.”

Of course. Elijah had explained some of the details to Markus when giving him the remote connection blocker. Plus, despite the media blackout, Markus’ leadership amongst the androids and increasing political power of course meant he’d been informed and involved in how to deal with the genocidal attempt. Elijah squeezed Carl’s hand, resting his forehead against it. He took a shuddering breath.

“I never thought…I didn’t think you could ever be threatened. I’m sorry,” Elijah whispered.

“What matters is you’re alive. You and Chloe are safe again and those people are being taken care of.” Carl gently rubbed Elijah’s hand. “I’m glad to see you’re out of your house.”

“What? Are you going to give a speech about isolation and the need to interact with others,” Elijah said with a soft chuckle. “I had my brother and Chloe.”

“I know you Elijah. You were still stuck in your head,” Carl replied. “It’s good to see you out of it.”

The tears pricked at the corner of his eyes as he rested against the bed. He focused on slowly and regularly breathing as he held Carl close. They talked softly, Elijah asking how Carl was and just wanting to forget about the kidnapping and Gavin’s near death-twice!

And then Carl said, “So you’ve been speaking with Leo.”

“How…did he tell you?”

“No, but this mind of mine is still sharp enough to pick up the pieces,” Carl replied. “He started to get anxious. About what, he wouldn’t say. But he was upset. That much I could tell. A phone call here, a phone call there, I knew it wasn’t…”

Carl paused as a coughing fit set in and Elijah quickly got him some water. After Carl managed to clear his throat, he continued. “It wasn’t work. Not even the classes he’s been taking. I’d like to think he’d tell me about that now if it was. But…but he was here when Markus told me. I saw the change in his face. It was your absence that was getting to him. Have you talked to him yet?”

“I…no. I didn’t think…” Elijah trailed off. He hadn’t thought of Leo period. Arguably, he’d had bigger concerns on his mind, the kidnappers had certainly never mentioned his name either but…

“I’m glad you both have been talking. I still have yet to convince Leo and Markus to have a proper sit down but you…he was worried about you. I hope you don’t take that lightly Elijah.”

“No, no of course I don’t Carl. I just…I didn’t think…” Elijah stopped talking again as words failed him. “I’ll talk to him. Most certainly,” he finally fell on. They talked a moment longer, Elijah eventually saying he didn’t want to take up too much of Carl’s time.

“You know you never do,” Carl smiled. “Make sure you come again soon.”

“Of course. Of course I will,” Elijah murmured.

He squeezed Carl’s hand in goodbye before he finally left the room and headed downstairs. He went into the main room, expecting to see Chloe fiddling with something or perhaps reading one of the many books. He was surprised to find her sitting at the dining table and with Leo right beside her. The tea in front of him suggested Leo had arrived not long after Elijah and Chloe. They’d probably been sitting there for a while.

For the split second before they’d seen him, Elijah noted that they looked like they were enjoying the chat. Leo looked mostly calm with a smile on his face though he was constantly fidgeting with his hands. And then Leo glanced behind Chloe’s shoulder. He tensed up right away and Elijah watched anger flash across his face. But it wasn’t…directed at him. No, he’d seen Leo look at him with anger before and this definitely wasn’t it. So who…

“Hi…Leo,” Elijah murmured.

Leo looked away, silence occurring for a second before he suddenly shot up, hard enough for the chair to fall over.

“I should-I didn’t—”

“Leo, wait.”

He went towards the kitchen entrance and Elijah quickly went to stop him.

Elijah tried to grab Leo’s shoulder but he pulled away. “I just wanted to—”

“No, it’s-I didn’t know you would be here. I thought I could be ready and-I just—”

“Leo, I’m sorry,” Elijah quickly got out. He stepped in front of Leo again, hands up. If he tried to push past Elijah once more, he’d let him this time. But at the very least he wanted to try and get out those words. “I’m sorry. I should have called you or something—”

“S-s-sorry? I-Elijah, you-no don’t say sorry to me. Don’t. Please don’t,” Leo said, his voice breaking syllable by syllable. “I-god damn it! I wasn’t-I wasn’t ready to do this…”

Leo wiped at his eyes as Elijah took a cautious step forward. “Ready for what? I don’t—”

“You were kidnapped. Fucking kidnapped! And I-all I could think of was-I was just thinking of—” Leo stopped again, the tears coming as Elijah finally got closer and put his arms around him. “I thought you were-you were-you wouldn’t answer my texts or calls and you-you were just gone and-and dad hadn’t heard-I didn’t know—”

“There was a media blackout. You couldn’t have known. You couldn’t have!” Elijah said.

“But I thought you were bored with me!” Leo yelled. “I thought you were done with me! I was just thinking of me! I was-was being so god damn selfish while you were hurting-fucking kidnapped! I was-was just—”

“No, it’s not your fault. It’s not.”

“But I was just thinking of myself! And you got shot and-and I—”

“I’m sorry. I’m so god damn sorry,” whispered Elijah as he pulled Leo into a hug. “I should have talked to you sooner. I should have-should have-I’m sorry Leo. I’m sorry.”

Leo’s grip tightened on him and Elijah pulled him closer. It was weird, having this moment that he hadn’t thought he needed or had ever thought that Leo might need. And yet…god did it feel good to hug Leo. His…his friend. Elijah pulled him closer. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t think to call you sooner. I’m sorry.”

“I-I’m sorry. I’m sorry for not—”

“It’s-it’s ok Leo. You didn’t-I’m back and it’s-it’s ok.” Elijah closed his eyes and just wrapped Leo up into an even tighter hug. He’d thought about things from Leo’s perspective. He hadn’t thought about the confusion or how the only logical conclusion would be that Elijah had dropped him from his life.

Elijah just hugged him as hard as he could. Even when they did finally part, he kept his arms around Leo.

“I’m sorry I didn’t-that I doubted you. I thought—”

“I’m not bored of you. I couldn’t be,” whispered Elijah.

“I—”

“You have nothing to be sorry for.”

“No. No it’s not that. I’m just…I’m happy you’re ok. I really am,” murmured Leo. “And…and Chloe told me everyone else was ok too. I…I’m just glad.”

“Yeah, well me too,” Elijah chuckled. He wiped at his eyes and smiled a little wider. “You…you should come over soon.”

“Really?”

Elijah corrected himself. “I want you to come over. Ok? After everything, I want something normal. Something sane. Besides, you still have more French to try and teach me.”

That finally got Leo to crack a smile in return. Elijah took a step back, finally just keeping a warm hold on Leo’s shoulder. “When are you off work this week?”

“Um, I just work a morning shift tomorrow.”

“How about tomorrow afternoon then?” asked Elijah.

“R-really?”

“Yes. Please.”

“Ok…ok I will.” Leo wiped at his eyes. “Sorry for how ridiculous this all was—”

“No, no need for that,” pressed Elijah. “You promised to come over tomorrow. That’s all I can ask for.”

Both Elijah and Leo hesitated for a second. The goodbye just a little bit awkward after the emotional moment they’d shared. An awkward hug happened before Leo murmured, “I should probably go see dad now. He was expecting me today. I’ll…I’ll see you tomorrow Elijah. Promise.”

Elijah smiled, eyes following Leo as he left for the stairs. Chloe came up behind him and hugged tight.

“Did you…did he say anything to you about that?” Elijah asked.

“No, it was as unexpected for you as it was for me,” Chloe honestly replied. “I could tell he was working up to something, though I couldn’t know for sure. I suppose that was it.”

“I suppose it was,” murmured Elijah.

They left soon after. At home, Elijah breathed in like it was his first time since the kidnapping. Leo would be over tomorrow. It would be normal. The kidnapping was done. Everyone was ok. Elijah was ok. He could do this. He could.

Elijah spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning up. He’d told Chloe to leave most of everything where it was during the past weeks. Gavin’s mess had sort of trailed behind him but Elijah had left the disarray. It had been a reminder that Gavin was alive, that he was ok. But Elijah didn’t need that now because the kidnapping was over. He was ok.

They cleaned the house and the next day Elijah couldn’t help but be a little excited. Back to normal. Finally.

Leo texted when he was on his way and it wasn’t long before he was there. Chloe let him in and they came to the library where Elijah was already pacing with a book in his hands. Spooner was curled up in one of the chairs and perked up at hearing the noise.

“You have a cat?” Leo smiled. “I never would have thought you an animal person.”

“My brother all but forced him on me,” laughed Elijah. “But I have grown to appreciate his presence.”

Chloe went to sit down as Leo got on his knees. He held out his hand. Spooner didn’t budge. Leo wiggled his fingers. The motion got the cat’s interest and after his eyes shifted with the motion, left and right, back and forth, he finally got up and stretched, his small toes scrunching up as he momentarily closed his eyes. He yawned and then jumped onto the ground. He got close to Leo, sniffing his fingers wearily.

Leo opened up his hand more. Spooner cocked his head to the side, clearly making a decision before suddenly pressing his small head against Leo’s palm. He started to purr, rubbing against him as his eyes closed.

“He likes you. I take that as a very good sign,” grinned Chloe.

“What’s his name?”

“Spooner,” Elijah replied.

“What does that mean?” asked Leo.

“It’s actually after a film character I quite like.”

“More like adore. You love that movie,” laughed Chloe.

Elijah rolled his eyes. “And the added irony of naming a cat after a man that made sure it was clear he did not like them.”

“Even though he still saved the cat.”

“Well of course. He couldn’t have stayed the hero otherwise.”

Elijah and Chloe laughed as Leo asked, “Um, what movie are we talking about?”

“How can you not know? It’s a classic,” Elijah said, his tone making it clear he was more teasing than anything.

“Just because you’re obsessed with it doesn’t make it a classic. It’s a semi well known film that received mixed reviews.”

“It’s a masterpiece.”

“Uh huh,” Chloe chuckled with a roll of her eyes. “Spooner is the lead detective in the movie. Though Elijah’s obsessed with it more for the robots in it.”

“How is that not surprising,” chuckled Leo.

Elijah just rolled his eyes again, Spooner purring and growing closer as Leo was able to pet him a few good times. Finally Spooner got bored though and headed out of the room.

Leo straightened back up and brushed his pants off. He looked around the room with interest. “The whole place seems…a little different,” Leo admitted. He was obviously curious but didn’t want to say anything that was deemed as too sensitive.

“My brother,” Elijah replied. “He stayed with me until he was well enough to go back to work. It was kind of impossible for his touch not to leave an impression on everything.”

Leo chuckled at that. He walked over to look at the book Elijah was holding and said, “So you’ve already started without me?”

“Somewhat. Admittedly, I think I’ve forgotten just about every word.” Elijah almost said more, about how the only thing running through his head for a while had been numbers and code and analyzing what was around him. But he didn’t want to revisit that and didn’t want to make Leo feel like he’d brought up something bad. So he stayed quiet instead, waiting for Leo’s response.

“You couldn’t have forgotten every word. What about je?” asked Leo.

“Um…say?”

Leo’s brow furrowed in confusion. “You need me to say it again?”

“No, I’m saying that’s what the word means,” laughed Elijah. “Say? Like speak?”

“Not even close. It’s I.”

Chloe laughed along with Leo. He and Elijah sat down together as Leo took the book and looked through it.

“Ok, well do you remember homme? What does homme mean?”

“Homo? Like homo sapiens?”

“Which means…”

“Oh! Man. Homme is man, right?”

“Yes, exactly,” smiled Leo. “Ok, let’s see what else there is…”

They went back and forth like that for a bit. Chloe grabbed some snacks and it continued on for quite some time. The snacks enticed Spooner back into the room. Chloe fed him some cheese which he happily ate up.

“If you keep doing that, he’ll be a gros chat,” laughed Leo.

“He’s too spry to be a fat cat. Aren’t you?” Elijah said. He picked up Spooner who let out a quick, unexpected meow. “Like trying to climb the ten foot high curtains, hmm? Isn’t that right you evil thing?”

“Christ, I would have liked to see that,” laughed Leo.

“It was very funny,” Chloe said.

“Not at all,” Elijah deadpanned.

They laughed and continued with the words and phrases. By eight o’clock, Leo finally said, “I’ve got group tomorrow. I should probably head home now before it gets much later.”

“Damn, I didn’t realize the time. And we’ve completely forgotten about dinner.”

“It’s ok,” chuckled Leo. “You can make up for it next time.”

Elijah smiled at that insinuation.

“I’ll see you later.”

Both Elijah and Chloe stood to walk him out but Leo waved his hand with another laugh. “I think I’ve finally got this place memorized. I’ll see you both later. Night.”

“Good night.” Elijah watched him go. He let out a soft sigh as Chloe walked up to him, rubbing his shoulders.

“Do you feel better now? Having done something normal?”

“Yes…it’s also probably good for my ego as well, being shown I don’t, in fact, know everything.”

Chloe laughed, hugging Elijah before they went and made a late dinner.

From then on, Elijah continued to text Gavin every day but he didn’t need to hear his brother’s voice all the time now. He was healing, slowly but surely. Elijah spent a good bit of time talking to Markus as well. He wasn’t often directly involved but he did float ideas by him, send code his way when he wrote them down and helped where Markus wanted him. That, along with the time he still spent with Gavin, kept him busy.

And between it all was Leo. Leo with his texts and questions about his paintings. Leo telling him about work or something that happened at group. Leo with his surprising knack at French and his love for the language. Just Leo and his visits. Sometimes it was just sitting and talking more like when they texted. Other times there was learning French or painting or cooking or a combination of itall.

Again, it was different than his time with Gavin. Obviously there was the connection of being brothers that made it different. But Gavin brought up childish parts of him that he’d thought long dead, or had never existed in the first place. With Gavin, they watched movies. They played games. There was always a certain amount of teasing that seemed to occur between them.

It wasn’t like that with Leo. He said he wasn’t for philosophy but it seemed the arts in general were in his blood. It brought interesting questions to discussions, talk about interpretation and things like languages and even poetry from time to time. There was the occasional teasing, but overall the relationship was a calming one. With Gavin, there was always something to joke about or make fun of. It wasn’t quite like that with Leo.

It was much closer to Elijah’s relationship with Chloe but still different. He didn’t know how, just that the feeling wasn’t quite the same.

Leo came over three more times after his first visit since the kidnapping. In between those visits, there was even more texting. Again, the correspondence had increased, not decreased and it felt good as they got into a pattern.

And then Elijah was reminded that healing was never an easy path.

In regards to his past, he was reminded in small ways. Comments and actions that made him flinch. Sometimes they were obvious, sometimes they weren’t, but he was growing from them. With the kidnapping, with Gavin’s death, he’d thought he was already ok though. Nightmares hadn’t really occurred. Maybe a fleeting feeling upon waking up but for a while, Gavin had been there, an immediate assurance that it was all ok.

And when nothing serious had happened after Gavin had left to go back to his apartment, Elijah had thought it fine. He’d moved on.

But then weeks after he had thought that, he woke up in a cold sweat. Panic ran through him and he acted instinctively. Spooner jumped, letting out a distressed and unexpected yowl as he launched himself off the bed and out of the room. Elijah barely even noticed as he grabbed his phone, hit the name, and waited for it to ring.

On the third ring, his brother picked up. “It’s one in the god damn morning? What?” grumbled Gavin.

Ok. Ok, he was alive. He was ok. “Nothing,” Elijah said, just barely keeping his voice calm. “I didn’t…I didn’t know what time it was. Sorry. Just go back to bed Gavin.”

“God fucking damn it. Waking me up in the middle of the night,” Gavin moaned before the phone suddenly clicked. He’d been too tired to notice if anything was wrong. Or perhaps Elijah had kept his voice steady enough to keep him from getting suspicious.

Either way, he needed to get to the next number. He looked for the name but it wasn’t on his phone. Why? Why wasn’t it there? He quickly typed in the number and listened.

“We’re sorry. You have reached a number that has been disconnected—”

Elijah ended the call. Right, Amanda was dead. She’d been dead for…for years. But if she was dead…then who else was gone? He should have known they were alive. He should have known who was ok but he was still panicking, the dream too real.

As he walked around the house, searching for Chloe, he called Carl’s caregiver. It took a moment, the android likely in sleep mode as he answered on the second ring.

“Mr. Kamski. Can I help you?”

“Carl, can you-just check on him. I need to know—”

“All vital signs are stable. He’s asleep. Would you like me to—”

“No. Don’t bother him. Just…thank you.”

“Is there something else you needed Mr. Kamski? Or something I need to know?”

“No. No just…just checking in. Sorry about the time. You don’t need to tell Carl about this,” Elijah quickly said. He ended the call just as he walked around the corner and into Chloe.

“Elijah! What are you doing up?”

He breathed easily again. “I…I’m just…I couldn’t sleep.”

Chloe’s brow furrowed in worry. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I…I’m going to the kitchen.”

“Elijah, don’t try and—”

“No. Chloe I…I appreciate it. I’m not…I just need some time to myself,” Elijah fell on. Thankfully Chloe didn’t stop him. He went to the kitchen. He sat down and called the last number he desperately needed to hear from.

Leo answered right away without hesitation. His voice was gruff from sleep but the first words out of his mouth were, “Are you ok?”

Elijah finally felt like he could breath easily. Amanda was gone but she’d been dead for several years. Everyone else, everyone that should be alive, they were.

“I’m fine. It’s—”

“You wouldn’t be calling me at past one in the morning if everything was fine,” Leo mumbled. There was movement on the other end, like Leo was forcing himself to sit up. Elijah almost thought about hanging up. It was far too late and he shouldn’t have called. As if Leo had heard that thought, he said, “Don’t hang up. Ok? Just…how was your day?”

“How was my day?” Elijah asked, his voice somewhat in disbelief.

“Yeah, really. I want to know.”

“I…Chloe and I swam in the pool. We um…we sparred.”

“Did she beat you?”

“Of course,” Elijah replied as he finally laughed a bit. “She always does.”

“What else?”

“I um…I spoke with my brother. He’s been dealing with a hard case. The first real one since getting back. I um…I listened to him complain about it for a while. I told him…he said he was going to be fine and I just…I didn’t tell him…I didn’t think to remind him to be safe but if he’d gotten…”

“Is this why you called?”

“I-what? No it…I just…I was thinking about if…if I hadn’t said goodbye…and I dreamed…” Elijah turned silent again. Leo let him think for a moment, just to collect himself. Technically, Leo was right. It wasn’t a direct connection but slowly it started to make since in Elijah’s mind why the dream had suddenly come about.

“You don’t have to tell me about it,” Leo murmured.

“No it’s just…it was because of me. They killed…they killed them because of me and I…”

“But your brother’s alive.”

“Yeah…I know. They’re…you’re safe too.”

Finally surprise seemed to come into Leo’s voice. “You’d thought…you thought I was dead?”

“I didn’t…I just remembered the dream. I couldn’t think through it,” Elijah whispered. When Leo didn’t respond right away, Elijah kept talking. “I couldn’t move. I could just watch. Watch from afar. I did everything I could to stop it and I thought…I thought it worked. They said it had and then—”

Those words. Those god damn words.

_Oh that’s right. This is a recording._

_Bang!_

“It was my fault and I couldn’t save you. I couldn’t,” Elijah got out in a broken whisper.

“But it didn’t happen. You’re talking to me now. Right?”

“Right,” Elijah murmured.

“Just…what do your senses tell you about the area around you?”

“What?”

“List them off. Smell, touch, whatever you can.”

“I…the counter is cold,” Elijah said, his eyes slipping shut. “It’s smooth. The air smells cold. Hard. It always does at night. Not a lot of movement. The…I have horrible morning breathe right now.”

Elijah and Leo both chuckled at that.

“I can’t hear anything. Nothing besides my own voice and…and I think my heart. Chloe isn’t nearby so I can’t hear her.” He slowly opened up his eyes. “I see the kitchen. Only one light is on. It’s dark outside. Just the trees and the grass. It’s…”

“Did the dream have any of that?”

“No just…just flashes. I felt…felt terrified.”

“But did you feel anything concrete? The floor beneath you? Whatever was holding you back? Hands? Chains?”

“No there was nothing because…because it wasn’t real,” Elijah finally said.

“Yeah, it wasn’t real,” Leo softly agreed.

Elijah wiped at his eyes. He let himself fully relax. “What…what did you do today? Yesterday technically.”

“I told one of my coworkers about…about me. About what I did. I trusted him. And he told me a story about himself. I think…I think I have friends again. People that I can lean on. But this time it’s a good social circle.”

“Tell me about them.”

Leo talked and Elijah listened, softly laughing and responding with his own comments. Spooner came back in. He jumped onto his lap and up onto the counter. He looked at him as if worried and Elijah scratched him under his chin while still talking. Spooner seemed appeased with that and relaxed, lying out on the counter. Chloe also came in at one point. She seemed relieved that he was talking with someone, he mouthed Leo’s name to her. She squeezed his shoulder with a comforting shoulder and left again.

They kept talking, the night growing lighter as the sun started to rise. Leo finally said, “I’m sorry. I need to get ready for work—”

“Christ, no I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—”

“It’s ok. If you want, I can come over after work.”

“Are you sure? I’m sure you’ll be exhausted after how late you’ve already stayed up.”

“I still slept a bit and better to keep with my normal schedule. Besides, I have group tomorrow so I definitely won’t stay up late again. Of course…that’s only if you want me to come over.”

“Yes. That would…I would very much like that,” Elijah murmured, trying not to sound like he was rushing his voice too much, sounding too hopeful.

“Alright. I should be over around three. I’ll text you if work runs a bit over.”

“Sounds good. Sorry for keeping you up so late.”

“You don’t have to say sorry Elijah. I was happy to help,” Leo replied and Elijah could hear the smile in his voice, clearly noting the parallel of the situation.

As he ended the call, Chloe came in again.

“Are you alright?” she asked, her voice making it clear she wasn’t going to late Elijah brush her off again.

“I’m better now,” sighed Elijah. “I’m sorry if I worried you. It was just a bad dream.”

“As long as you’re feeling better now. Do you want to go back to bed? Or I can make you something.”

“I can’t go back to sleep right now. Something…something to eat would probably be a good idea.”

He stuck by Chloe now as the dream started to slip away though she insisted she alone made food. Gavin called him back later that day around lunch. Hearing his brother’s voice helped Elijah calm down even more.

“Hey, did you call me this morning?” Gavin asked.

“Can’t you just check your own call logs?” chuckled Elijah.

“I did. Just wanted to make sure the entire conversation hadn’t been a delusion or some shit.”

Elijah laughed again. “No, I was just bored. I didn’t realize how late it was.”

“Are you sure? Everything ok?”

“It is,” Elijah replied. And it was the truth now. He was ok now and considering everything he did go to his brother for, there was no need to add more to that. “Is the case going ok?”

“Yeah, I think so. I’ve got a good lead today. About to go and follow it up now.”

“Be careful.”

“Always am.”

“Gavin…”

“Ok, I will. That better?” Gavin said, obviously rolling his eyes on the other end.

“Yes,” Elijah said with a sigh of relief. “I’ll talk to you later.”

“See you,” replied Gavin.

The call ended and Elijah spent the rest of the day with Chloe, doing simple things and fighting off the lack of sleep with being busy. When Leo got there, he hugged Elijah right away.

Elijah was shocked by that. However, he smiled, leaning into it before Leo quickly pulled back and said, “I hope that’s alright. You looked like you could use it.”

“It’s perfectly fine. Thank you,” smiled Elijah. Before he could ask Leo what he wanted to do, Leo asked it first.

“No, not this time. I want to know what you want to do.”

Elijah thought about it for a moment before he said, “What if we just paint for a bit?”

“Sounds good to me.”

They went to the painting room, Chloe joining them soon after with Spooner following close behind. This time he wasn’t so wary of Leo and went up to him, letting him pet him for a second before curling up in Chloe’s lap after she sat down. The three of them slipped into a comfortable silence as time passed and the sun got lower and lower outside.

“You’ve improved,” Elijah smiled as he paused to just watch Leo.

“You really think so? My dad hasn’t given me much pointers. And I haven’t really looked up any technical information.”

“Those things are important but they’re not necessary,” Elijah replied. “When I say improve, I mean you’ve become more comfortable in your own style. You seem to know what you’re doing.”

“Really?” Leo asked with even more disbelief.

“Yes,” Elijah smiled.

“I agree,” Chloe replied. “I quite like what you’re doing now. Is it a bird?”

“I…think so. I kind of just was doing my own thing and…I think I know what it’s going to be now,” replied Leo. “What about you both?”

“I’m just painting Spooner in a cute position,” Chloe said, showing Spooner tangled in a ball of yarn that she’d recreated from imagines she’d seen of cats curled up in yarn balls. “We should get him one.”

“That cat makes enough of a mess as is,” Elijah said even though he was smiling. Chloe gave him pleading eyes. “Maybe.”

Leo chuckled at that. “And you?”

“Just messing with color, letting my hand just slip wherever I want it to,” Elijah smiled. They continued for a bit longer, eventually taking a break to have an early dinner and so Elijah could feed Spooner. He still mostly gave him dry food but occasionally treated him to something wet. Considering he’d scared the poor cat this morning, he decided a wet treat was in order.

The three of them cooked something simple together before sitting down to eat. They talked mainly about what the weeks looked like for all of them. Chloe mentioned meeting with Connor and Leo talked about work and some of the people that he was scheduled to work with. Elijah ended up talking about some work he was going to do with Markus and Leo asked if he could see the code he was currently writing.

Elijah said yes and guided Leo to his work area, Spooner and Chloe following close behind. Coding was a comfort for Elijah, something he was used to and knew how to do. Chloe could obviously keep up with anything he threw at her so Elijah just started talking like he normally did. He hadn’t noticed that he had very much left Leo behind after the first few words.

“Apologies. I’m rambling, aren’t I?”

“No, it’s ok,” Leo laughed. “It’s…it’s…I can see this is your painting. Where you passion lies.”

“It is calming in its own right. I need some direction to go in when I sit down though. Painting is more meditative I suppose.”

“I’d rather just meditate,” laughed Leo. “And speaking of painting, if it’s alright, I’d like to leave the painting here. The bird one. I think I want to finish it some other day.”

“Of course. Do you know where you’re going with it?” asked Elijah.

“Yeah. I didn’t realize it at first but it’s kind of based on this poem I really like. It’s just a book of poetry for kids but it’s helping with the lessons for French. It’s called _Pour peindre un oiseau_ ,” Leo replied.

“I know pour is to and un is a. That’s about it,” Elijah said with a smile.

“Then we’ll just have to work up to the others. I can actually bring it next time. It’s just on a tablet.”

“Oh, I’d love that,” Chloe quickly said.

“Yes, that would be nice,” Elijah agreed.

“Well you said you’re free Sunday and all I have is group that day at its normal time,” Leo said. “How about I see you then?”

“Sounds fine with me,” smiled Elijah and Chloe quickly nodded.

“Well, with that in mind I should probably get going. I need to actually sleep tonight,” Leo said. He quickly held up his finger and shook his head. “And don’t damn well say sorry about that. I was happy to help.”

“Then I’ll just settle on thank you,” replied Elijah. “I’m assuming you know where the front door is?”

Leo rolled his eyes. “Your house may be big but it’s not a maze. I’ll see you both on Sunday.”

Elijah and Chloe gave little waves of goodbye. Once Leo was gone, Chloe nudged Elijah.

“What?” he asked.

“I like him. I’m glad that people actually come over to your home now,” smiled Chloe.

“You think it’s done me good?”

“I think it has definitely made you more open than you once were. I like it,” Chloe said as she kissed his cheek. “How about we clean up, a movie, and then bed.”

“Sounds good to me,” Elijah replied. He picked up Spooner and followed Chloe out of the room.


	3. Intimacy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So technically this could be four chapters still. However, in my head I feel like it will need five chapters to fit everything in it that I want. I'll just have to wait and see how the next chapter plays out to be sure. That being said, we are definitely over half way through with this so thank you so much for the wonderful kudos and comments and just everything!

Leo came over on Sunday just like he’d said. They ended up starting off painting, Leo adding more to the painting of the bird from before. To Elijah, he’d honestly thought the painting might almost be done but Leo continued to add more on top. It was interesting, watching how Leo did it in a way. Elijah certainly never would have thought to add what he did, but that was how painting was special. It was different to the individual.

Spooner ran around them, even knocking Elijah’s new painting to the ground and jumping onto it. Elijah and Chloe laughed and Leo said, “I guess Spooner wants to paint too.”

“Well considering my original plan is gone, please. Have at it Spooner,” Elijah said.

As if in response, the cat started to mess with the paint even more, rolling in it and scratching up the canvas. Elijah only really went to stop him when Spooner tried to lick the paint off.

“Alright, I think it’s time to clean you up,” said Elijah, grabbing him and whisking him away to be washed.

With Spooner washed and fluffed back up, it seemed to mark the end to their painting session. After all, it was late enough to have dinner now. Considering Leo typically came in the afternoon, dinner was starting to become a normal part of his visits. Typically Elijah and Chloe would start to make something but before Leo had come over this time, Elijah had asked in advance what he wanted to eat.

Thus, they were now eating something a bit more normal like pizza, though of course Elijah and Chloe insisted making it rather than buying some box or having Leo bring carryout.

“Just promise you don’t put pineapple on pizza,” said Leo as the ingredients were placed on the counter.

“No, that would be just my brother,” smirked Elijah.

“Really? Are you sure you’re related?”

“Every time he chose to utterly destroy a pizza we were ordering, I did wonder,” Elijah joked.

Once the dough was rolled out, Chloe easily threw it up and around until it was large enough and the right shape. They argued over what to put on the pizza and how much of it, though all in good fun of course. They talked more as the pizza baked and also while they ate, just describing what they’d all been up to. Elijah asked after Carl and Leo said he was doing well and that they were still talking regularly.

“You know, dad asks after you every now and then. He wonders why you don’t visit that often,” Leo commented.

“I had several very good years with him. I simply wanted to give you both space to connect. I hope that’s not presumptuous of me.”

“No, not at all. That’s…it’s pretty nice of you,” replied Leo. “Thanks.”

Elijah acknowledged it with a smile and they continued talking and eating. After a while they retired to the library where Leo finally pulled out the tablet that held the poetry book on it. They sat down in a small circle as Leo turned the tablet on.

“Read some and we’ll see how much I’ve retained,” chuckled Elijah.

Leo looked over in surprise. “Me? Are you sure?”

“It’s your book,” smiled Chloe. “I’d like to listen to you.”

“Um…ok. I…I’ll just go with the first one,” Leo said. He started the first poem, his voice shaking just a bit but he slowly became more and more confidant as the words fell from his mouth.

Elijah had no idea how accurate the words were or if to a native speaker, Leo had an incredibly obvious American accent. However, for the most part it was clear Leo knew the words. He didn’t stutter and his confidence continued to grow as his voice grew more sure and just a little louder. Elijah smiled. He rested his arm on the back of the couch and leaned against his hand. It was just one, massive, clear sound, to him. Almost a poem in its own sense.

“So what does il mean? Or what about the simple phrase in the poem, il est debout.” Leo looked at him curiously, Chloe looking over too. She cocked an eyebrow and waited. Leo frowned and leaned forward a bit. “Elijah?”

“Huh?”

Chloe rolled her eyes. “None of that sunk in, did it?”

“You asked something?”

Leo let out a grown. “Teaching a language only works if you listen to the questions too,” he chuckled.

“Ask me the question again. I promise I’ll get it.”

“Ok, what is il?”

“He,” Elijah immediately said.

“Glad to see something is sinking in,” Chloe laughed.

Elijah shot her a well meaning glare before looking to Leo again. “What else?”

“One of the lines in the poem, il est debout. What is that?”

“He is…doubting?”

“That would be il doute. Debout would be standing,” smiled Leo.

“I was close,” Elijah said.

“You really weren’t,” Chloe replied.

“Give me some more lines.”

They went back and forth for a bit, Elijah not doing so badly as he was paying better attention now. They moved to another poem and continued like that for a bit, Elijah making a point to really try and listen for the individual words rather than just Leo’s voice as a whole. That was a bit hard though as Leo’s voice flowed over each syllable, something so easy to become lost in.

Eventually, Spooner came in with the clear intent to play and Chloe excused herself. Leo made to get up but she quickly waved him back down.

“Stay a bit longer if you like. Elijah could certainly use the extra work,” Chloe said.

Elijah rolled his eyes in response.

“Do you want me to stay?” Leo asked. “I mean…it’s a bit late.”

“It’s up to you,” Elijah replied as Chloe left the room. “I’d like you to stay but I know you have your own responsibilities.”

“Well I mean…I have some plans with co-workers tomorrow morning but nothing that I have to worry about being late to or have to make sure I get a full night’s sleep for,” chuckled Leo. “I can stay a little bit longer.”

“Then on to the next poem, I suppose.”

“First, let’s try something different.” Leo got up and sat next to Elijah. “You read one.”

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

“It may sink in more if you read it yourself, you can work on your pronunciation, and your ability to read it,” grinned Leo. “Come on, I’m curious to see how you’ll do.”

“I think you’re just waiting to laugh at my poor pronunciation.”

“We’ll just have to wait and see.”

Elijah rolled his eyes. “I think I’ll start by reading one you’ve already done. That way I at least have an idea of what it’s supposed to sound like.”

“What do you mean? It seemed like you rarely ever heard me when I spoke,” smirked Leo.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Elijah shot back, sticking his nose up in the air just a little bit. Leo chuckled as Elijah started to read. He went more slowly, Leo occasionally correcting him on a word here or there.

Admittedly, Elijah could understand the sentences a lot more as he read it himself. After they discussed the first poem, they continued to the next one. That went on for a little while, Elijah flipping back to the table of contents and picking at random another poem.

Leo had sort of been leaning near him so he could read along and better figure out which words Elijah was completely butchering. However, he started to lean on him now more than would have been necessary to keep looking at the tablet.

“Perhaps you should just stay here for the night,” Elijah suggested as he looked down at him. “No point in you driving all the way back if you might fall asleep at the wheel.”

“Yeah…might be a good…idea,” Leo finally got out with a yawn. Elijah went to turn the tablet off but Leo waved his hand at him. “I’m not that tired. Keep reading.”

“Oh really?”

“Yes, really. Go on.”

Elijah rolled his eyes but caved and continued with the next poem. They talked about it for a bit, Leo seeming to get more and more sleepy even as he waved Elijah to read another.

“ _Pour peindre un oiseau_. Hold on, isn’t that the poem you said you really liked? The one the painting is somewhat based on?” asked Elijah.

“Yeah…hmm…what does the name mean?”

“To paint a…bird?”

Instead of responding, Elijah just felt Leo nod against him.

Elijah had gotten a little better at his pronunciation since he’d started and as long as he talked slowly enough, he did better with the words.

“Peindre d’abord une cage  
Avec une porte ouverte

Peindre ensuite  
Quelque chose de joli  
Quelque chose de simple  
Quelque chose de beau  
Quelque chose d’utile  
Pour l’oiseau  
Placer ensuite la toile contre un arbre  
Dans un jardin  
Dans un bois  
Ou dans une forêt  
Se cacher derrière l’arbre  
Sans rien dire  
Sans bouger”

Elijah paused, glancing down at Leo whose head was fully slumped against him now. From what Elijah could understand, he could see why Leo liked the poem. It was a calming piece, seeming to say something about letting what happens, happen and that you don’t always know where you’re going with something and that was ok.

Leo made a noise, signaling Elijah to keep reading despite how his eyes remained firmly shut.

“Parfois l’oiseau arrive vite  
Mais il pourrait aussi mettre de longues années  
Avant de se decider  
Ne pas se décourgager  
Attendre  
Attendre s’il le faut pendant des années  
La vitesse ou la lenteur de l’arrivée de l’oiseau  
N’ayant aucun rapport  
Avec la réussite du tableau

Quand l’oiseau arrive  
S’il arrive  
Observer le plus profond silence  
Attendre que l’oiseau entre dans la cage  
Et quand il est entré  
Fermer doucement la porte avec un pinceau  
Puis effacer un à un tous les barreaux  
En ayant soin de ne toucher aucune des plumes de l’oiseau”

Elijah stopped again feeling how Leo’s breathing was beginning to slow down even more. He wasn’t really responding now, comfortably slumped against Elijah’s shoulder. Elijah carefully took his phone to ask Chloe if she could make up the spare bedroom. As she did that, Elijah decided to finish the poem.

“Faire ensuite le portrait de l’arbre  
En choisissant la plus belle de ses branches  
Pour l’oiseau  
Peindre aussi le vert feuillage et la fraîcheur du vent  
La poussière du soleil  
Et les bruits des bêtes de l’herbe dans la chaleur de l’été  
Et puis attendre que l’oiseau se décide à chanter  
Si l’oiseau ne chante pas  
C’est mauvais signe  
Signe que le tableau est mauvais  
Mais s’il chante c’est bon signe  
Signe que vous pouvez signer  
Alors vous arrachez tout doucement  
Une des plumes de l’oiseau  
Et vous écrivez votre nom dans un coin du tableau.”

He got a message from Chloe that it was ready and Elijah turned off the tablet. He gently touched Leo’s shoulder to see if he would wake up but he was fast asleep. With that in mind, Elijah got his hands underneath him and only picked him up with a slight sound of struggle. Leo was only five foot seven and lean. It wasn’t that difficult carrying him to the bedroom where he set Leo down and pulled the covers over him.

“Goodnight Leo,” Elijah murmured, closing the door behind him and heading to his own bedroom.

In the morning, he was with Chloe cooking breakfast when Leo came padding in, hair still tousled as he yawned. He looked to Chloe and said, “Did you really carry me to bed last night? I don’t remember getting there.”

“I didn’t. He did,” Chloe chuckled, pointing at Elijah.

Leo blinked in surprise as a slight show of color came to his cheeks.

“I hope that was alright. I didn’t see a point in waking you if I didn’t have to,” Elijah said as he looked over.

“It’s fine. I’m just a little surprised,” Leo admitted.

“He can carry me and I’m much heavier than you,” Chloe smirked.

“Wait really? Oh, well I guess plastic and parts could be denser than human parts, right?”

“Not so much with later models but with me, yes. They hadn’t perfected it. But Elijah can still catch me. Watch—”

“Chloe-oomph!”

Elijah staggered just the slightest before righting himself. Chloe shot him a brilliant smile and Elijah sighed, lightly touching the tips of their noses and foreheads together.

“You’re lucky I wasn’t holding anything.”

“Because you still would have caught me.”

“Yes,” sighed Elijah as he rolled his eyes and Chloe gracefully got back to the floor. Leo was laughing a good bit and Elijah quickly pointed a finger at him. “Don’t even think about doing the same thing.”

“I wasn’t planning on it,” laughed Leo. “I don’t have her coordination. It’s more likely we’d both just go crashing to the ground.”

“Smart man,” Elijah grinned. “Breakfast?”

“Yeah, why not this time.”

Leo stayed for breakfast and then left to hurry home and take a shower before his plans with his friends. Now with quite a few visits between them, Elijah couldn’t help but notice his different reactions to seeing Leo show up versus how Elijah felt watching him leave. His paranoia had mostly ebbed since the kidnapping with Gavin so there wasn’t any sudden feeling of fear when his brother left his sight. And it wasn’t fear that he felt watching Leo go but there was something there, odd and a little painful. Sad almost.

He’d need more information before he could figure out what exactly it was.

Elijah went on, visiting with his brother and slowly working more and more with Markus. He and Chloe played chess and sparred and just kept busy. And then Leo was there, with the visits and the French and the painting and his soft smiles.

He would come and tell him wild tales of work, crazy customers and funny circumstances. He didn’t mention group often but he seemed happy with the people there. He was even a little sad about one of them that was leaving soon.

“It sucks but hey, if she doesn’t need it, more power to her. I wish her the best,” Leo smiled.

Elijah nodded in agreement. He liked that Leo was willing to tell him things like this and Elijah told Leo bits and pieces of his past, the nightmares. They were few and far between thankfully but it was good having someone else to lean on, particularly someone from an outside source.

He hadn’t told Gavin about Leo though he did talk to Leo about what he and Gavin did. Part of the reason was a good time just hadn’t come up and he was sure Gavin would just be bored with what he had to say. Gavin was more interested in listening to Elijah talk about his work with Markus, not his personal life, though granted he didn’t think Elijah had a personal life outside of Chloe, work, and Gavin himself.

Considering Elijah still had some things to sort out though, he was happy to keep the two relationships a bit separate. And then things got even more confusing.

Leo came over like he always did. Chloe was out so it was just them and Spooner. Leo distracted Spooner right away as he pulled something out of his satchel.

“Is Chloe here?” Leo asked.

“Not at the moment.”

“That’s a shame. I got this because of that one painting. And because Chloe always seems to be getting onto you about getting Spooner more toys,” Leo grinned. He threw the yarn ball and Spooner launched himself after it, skidding on the smooth floor and disappearing into another room.

“Spooner has plenty of toys. What you’ve done is just given him an opportunity to make more of a mess,” Elijah said.

 Leo and Elijah turned to see the yarn ball go rolling by a door, Spooner sliding across the floor right behind it.

Elijah rolled his head over to look at Leo with a raised eyebrow.

“He loves me,” Leo smiled.

“If he ends up eating part of it and throwing up a hairball, you’re cleaning it up,” replied Elijah.

“That’s fair enough. To painting?”

Elijah nodded in agreement and they went to the room, Spooner somehow intercepting them again with the slowly loosening ball of yarn. Elijah sighed but swiftly picked it up. He rolled up the loose bits as Spooner tried to catch the string before Elijah shoved the end into the center to better keep it together. Spooner’s eyes got wide, his bottom wiggling in preparation as Elijah tossed it again and Spooner pounced.

Spooner quickly started skittering back and forth with the ball again. Elijah chuckled fondly and continued walking to the room. He and Leo got to work, talking casually at first before slowly drifting into a comfortable silence.

At one point, Elijah paused to watch Leo and he just didn’t really…stop. He watched as Leo’s brow would furrow in concentration before completely smoothing as inspiration struck and his brush moved again.

It wasn’t like the times Elijah had watched Carl paint. It was clear Leo was doing his best to be honest to himself, not just being a carbon copy of his father. However, with that being said, Elijah could also tell Carl had slowly been adding to Leo’s knowledge about mixing colors and shadows and the like. Leo’s technical skills had greatly improved but as Elijah continued to watch, completely having forgotten about his own painting, Leo’s brow seemed to become more and more furrowed, the pauses in between painting becoming longer and more drawn out.

During their times painting, Elijah had also noted Leo got fairly messy, wiping off his brush on his arms and the back of his hands rather than using a pallet or a cup of water a lot of times. Now he was continuously tapping spots out on his arm, still stuck. Leo’s eyes traveled from the canvas to his own arm. Very slowly, an idea seemed to move to the forefront of Leo’s mind. He opened his mouth, ready to ask something as he turned to Elijah and froze.

“Have you been staring at me this entire time?” asked Leo.

“What? No,” Elijah quickly said. “I’ve been painting.”

Leo glanced at the canvas. “For about five minutes I see.”

“I enjoy watching you work. Is that not alright?” asked Elijah with just a tinge of sarcasm and a teasing smile.

“It’s fine,” Leo chuckled.

“Good, then I’m curious what you were going to ask me next.”

Leo’s mouth snapped shut, a blush coming across his cheeks.

“You were going to ask me something, correct?”

“I…yeah. I was just trying to figure out where to go next and I…well I was wondering if I could…paint…you,” Leo finally fell on.

Elijah looked at him curiously. “As a subject?”

Leo glanced back to his paint covered arm. “More like a…um…as a…canvas.”

“Really?”

“It’s just an idea. A stupid one. Never—”

“No, I’m curious what you’ll do.” Elijah sat closer and revealed one of his arms with his palm up. “Let your inspiration take you,” Elijah smiled.

Leo hesitated for a second, slowly and gently taking Elijah’s wrist. He went to grab the paint brush, only to pause and put it in his mouth. With both hands free, he rolled up Elijah’s short sleeve a little to reveal more of his bicep. Leo grabbed his paint brush again and immediately seemed to know what he wanted to do. His brow smoothed and he started to work at a slow, continuous pace.

Elijah let his arm go limp, allowing Leo to move it around where he needed it. His muscles involuntarily twitched from time to time, not used to the cool paint and the light touches of the brush hairs. Elijah could feel his chest tightening as he focused on Leo’s features. The soft brown eyes, utterly focused on the paint.

It was hard not to smile, just taking joy in watching how Leo worked and got lost in the brush.

“I’m surprised you didn’t say anything.”

Elijah blinked. “What?”

“It’s been over an hour and you still haven’t said anything,” Leo repeated.

“An…hour?”

“Yes. I finished,” Leo  said, finally putting the brush down and leaning back.

Elijah looked down. Leo was still holding his wrist as they looked at the art he’d done. It was shocking what depth Leo had managed to create, like someone had opened up a door to another world on his skin.

Snow prints moved down his ring finger before going into the world, growing smaller in the distance. But it wasn’t a normal winter, the trees too smooth and almost metallic looking. The footprints disappeared as the image ended on the forearm, only to reappear on his upper bicep. At first it seemed like a separate image but Elijah realized the story still continued.

The footprints continued on in the not quite snow and in the not quite forest.

“It’s beautiful,” murmured Elijah.

“You really think so?”

“I love it.”

Leo smiled, finally letting go of Elijah’s wrists and holding up his hands. “Stay just like that. I want to take a picture before you wash it off.”

Elijah softly chuckled as Leo grabbed his phone and took several angles before sitting back with a smile.

“I hope I didn’t bore you too much.”

“Not at all,” Elijah quickly said. “I enjoy watching you work.”

“Then maybe…maybe you could return the favor some time,” Leo suggested.

“What few times I’ve brought up coding, you’ve been completely lost,” chuckled Elijah. “You’re just being kind.”

“No I’m…curious. Honest. You get to see me in my element all the time. I want to see you in yours. Like, what are you working on now?” asked Leo.

Elijah leaned forward and looked at Leo closely. “Do you honestly want to know?”

Leo leaned forward, shortening the distance even more with a grin. “Yes. Show me.”

“If your ears start to bleed with boredom, it’s your own fault,” joked Elijah as he stood up.

He washed off the majority of the paint first, deciding he’d bother with what was left later. He went to his usual work shop, Leo following close behind. On the way over, they spotted Spooner asleep and wrapped up in the mass of yarn.

“I knew he’d like it,” grinned Leo.

Elijah just rolled his eyes, the door to his work room automatically opening as he went and sat down. “Hmm, where should I start…” Elijah mused.

He pulled up some work he was doing for Markus and showed it to Leo, explaining some of the more technical points. Slowly, Elijah stopped going into so much detail though, getting lost in the coding and making sure everything was working correctly as he compiled it.

Eventually, Elijah glanced towards Leo and smiled. “Are you really just enjoying watching me?”

“Yeah…” Leo sighed before suddenly sitting upright. “Yes! Yes it’s…it’s just nice to see you in your element.”

“Well, how about a break and we can get back to French?”

“Sounds good to me,” smiled Leo.

Elijah shut down the program and they headed to the library.

Though Elijah couldn’t have known it at that second, those small moments opened up more with Leo’s near weekly visits. Sometimes he’d even get the chance to come over twice. If Chloe hung out with them, it seemed like they stayed a little farther apart but then, Chloe seemed to be going out more and more. Elijah was happy that she was forming connections with Markus’ family and people in the world, but he couldn’t help but feel her actions were intentional.

He did bring up his suspicions with her during lunch one day but she easily shrugged it off.

“I quite enjoy Leo. But I’m enjoying going out. Especially since it’s spring now and summer isn’t far behind,” Chloe smiled. “Why would you think I’m avoiding you both on purpose?”

“I didn’t. I was just curious if there was a reason you were going out more recently,” Elijah easily said, moving the conversation on to another subject.

Despite his words though, Elijah was sure Chloe’s absence was intentional. After all, she had to have seen how their interactions changed in those splits seconds where they still thought they were alone before they noted Chloe’s presence. When she wasn’t there, they were just…closer. Perhaps intimate was the right word.

Elijah still enjoyed to paint but they’d started up a new pattern. He would often work on his code and Leo would paint, more often than not somewhere on his skin. In between their work would be breaks for French or talking or eating or other small things but it was a new, calm experience.

And then there was the moment where Leo’s inspiration finally seemed to pause again. He remained frozen, brow furrowed longer than normal.

Usually Elijah remained perfectly still for him so it wasn’t surprising that Leo jolted as Elijah moved some of his devices around.

“Here, I’ll give you a bigger canvas to work with,” Elijah said with a small smirk. “Besides, my back was getting stiff in that position anyways.”

He pulled off his shirt, aware of Leo staring just a bit as Elijah laid down and started to focus on his work again. For a moment there was silence and then he just barely felt Leo’s fingers move over his shoulder.

“That scar…” Leo slowly said.

“A bullet. From the kidnapping,” Elijah responded, eyes not moving from his code even though he wasn’t really reading it right now.

“May I?”

“Certainly,” murmured Elijah as he felt Leo’s fingers slowly trace the scarred tissue. He sucked in air, holding his breath as he just barely felt the touches over the knotted place.

It only took a few more moments before he felt the paintbrush on his back, Leo’s inspiration back. Elijah’s muscles involuntarily twitched at the unfamiliar, gentle touches though otherwise he managed to remain completely still.

Elijah let out a soft sigh, one that Leo didn’t seem to notice, only focused on painting out some image on Elijah’s back.

Though Elijah’s fingers were moving and he was doing some simple computations, his mind was honestly working on a different set of information that he’d gathered so far.

Despite how much he’d separated himself from society for several years, Elijah had experimented with sexuality though probably not to the depths that some would assume of his wealth and status. Being sixteen in a graduate college environment had been…confusing to say the least. And then as his relationship with his brother had worsened, he’d really only had Carl and Amanda to lean on, hardly the best people to explore such a subject with.

So Elijah wasn’t clueless. But he was probably going about this the wrong way. Gavin would probably tell him something along the lines of following his gut. However, that wasn’t Elijah’s nature. He took in information and analyzed it to best calculate whatever event was in front of him and the probabilities of the next outcome.

He knew what was going on but how conscious were Leo’s decisions? Considering it was Leo that had started this new pattern of wanting to paint on Elijah’s skin, he certainly wasn’t uncomfortable with the more intimate touches and he hadn’t complained when Elijah had taken him to bed that one time. That blush…was it just embarrassment? Something more? Or just the pure unpredictability of the human body?

And if it was more…what then?

Elijah didn’t have a grounded understanding of what it meant to be in a relationship like this. How did you even start one? Was their some sort of mutual conversation? An action? The fact that Elijah was analyzing this possible future, did that mean Elijah wished for a relationship past the one they had formed?

And then what of his action to remove his shirt? Logically, it made since to give Leo more room to paint. And he had been at Elijah’s arms and hands for a while. He should try something new. The logic was there but had Elijah done so to…what? To show off? In the hopes he’d get Leo to stare? Did he like that Leo had stared?

Then there was the question of attraction. Their last time couldn’t be properly analyzed, booze and drugs clouding every action. But now…now he looked at Leo and…and he was appealing to look at. But not just looks his voice, when he was passionate or reciting a poem, it was all so easy to get lost in it. But how should he act on this attraction? And what about Leo’s own thoughts?

Elijah honestly wasn’t sure and he wished he had more data. Sadly, most of that data that he would have needed was unobtainable due to his lack of experience in such an area and the natural passage of time. A good deal of this would simply be seeing what Leo did and trying to figure out what Leo wanted from here on out.

A phone was shoved into his face, stopping Elijah’s thoughts in their tracks.

“What do you think?” Leo asked.

Elijah took the phone and looked at the picture Leo had just taken. “Hmm, it’s almost painful to look at. The colors don’t mix at all.”

“That was what I was going for, something darker,” said Leo. “I was worried the emotion wouldn’t come through though and it would just look like a mess up.”

“Well, if that was your goal, I think it worked,” Elijah replied with a smile as he handed the phone back.

Yes, he just needed more data…

So their current relationship continued. Spooner was used to Leo’s presence as much as he was used to Gavin now which Elijah counted as a plus. A relationship had also formed between Chloe and Leo too. It felt good seeing his closest friend getting along with Leo and it was also good to see how much Leo had grown since his first introduction to Markus.

Elijah liked Leo. That much was obvious by this point. But what beyond that? What of Leo’s own wants and desires?

Even after Leo had visited several more times, Elijah wasn’t sure he had enough information to make any sort of move or to even speak to Leo about it. But then thoughts of that evaporated with just one word.

It was a normal weekend afternoon. Gavin had been over for lunch and Elijah’s afternoon was mostly free for him to work. Chloe was off going over more languages while Elijah sat in his main work area. He was typing just as his phone buzzed. Elijah pulled it out and opened up a message from Leo.

_Help._

Elijah froze. What… Why had…

_Never mod I’d all right._

What? That didn’t make any sense…unless… Leo was closing himself off and trying to make the cry for help seem like it wasn’t serious, and the reason for the nonsense sentence could likely be him saying something closer to the idea of, never mind I’m alright. Only the words had autocorrected. Possibly because Leo’s hands were shaking horribly because…why?

Elijah forced himself out of the frozen state and quickly called Leo as he rushed to the garage. He silently begged Leo to pick up. However, he couldn’t trust Leo to answer honestly right now or even if he could. What the hell had happened?

There wasn’t an answer as Elijah sat in his car, body tense as he tried to figure out what to do. He didn’t even know where Leo was at the moment. His phone dinged as another message came through.

_Don’t._

Elijah couldn’t swallow. He had no idea what mindset Leo was in, what he might do. He just knew he needed to find him. He tried to call again.

The phone rang. And rang.

Elijah thought for sure Leo wouldn’t pick up and was already trying to figure out what to do next. Carl, Carl’s caregiver. They would know the exact addresses of Leo’s work, his group, his apartment, right? Perhaps they even knew where he was supposed to be at this—

“Elijah I’m-I don’t want to bother you.”

Leo’s voice came through, soft and shaken. Elijah almost yelled at him, demanding to know where he was. He was desperate but-no! That risked driving Leo away. He could still hang up. Elijah needed to keep him on the line.

“You’re not bothering me,” Elijah said, trying to keep from sounding too rushed and hurried. “Where are you?”

“It’s stupid. It’s so…so fucking stupid.”

“That’s ok. It’s ok Leo. Just tell me where you are. Please,” Elijah begged.

“I’m…it doesn’t even…I’m at home.”

“Ok, where’s home. What’s the address Leo?”

There was silence on the other end for a moment and Elijah was afraid Leo would just refuse to answer or even hang up. But then… The address! The moment the words were out of Leo’s mouth, Elijah punched it in and had the car drive there, even breaking the safety measures to make sure it was going over the speed limit.

“Ok Leo. I’m on the way. Just stay where you are,” Elijah said, hoping that he’d manage to keep Leo on the phone for most of the journey. At the very least, he could count himself lucky that Leo had told him where he was. It meant that despite how he was trying to close off, he did want help and was subconsciously willing to fight for it. “Leo, just tell me, are you hurt?”

Leo didn’t answer though Elijah could hear his shuddering breaths. He waited…still nothing. Come on he needed…he needed something…

He decided to rephrase it. “Do you have any bruises? Any cuts?”

“N-no.”

Ok, so that at least narrowed down what could have happened but not by much. Elijah almost asked him if he needed to call the police or emergency services but that might scare Leo away. Instead, he left it at, “Is there someone else you want me to call?”

“I don’t want-I mean no just—” Leo stopped, only his shuddering sobs being heard through the phone.

If there wasn’t a risk of crashing the damn car, Elijah would have made it go even faster. “You…when you talked to me you had me ground myself. I listed off what I smelled and saw—”

“I’m in my apartment. I know-know that!” Leo cut in though there wasn’t any real bite to his tone. “I just-I thought I-I’m god damn worthless. I can’t-can’t do anything—”

“You’re not worthless. You’re not,” replied Elijah. He waited to see if Leo would say anything more. He just heard crying. “Ok…ok just…breathe for me. In and out. Right? Please Leo.”

There were so many things Elijah wanted to ask him but he needed to keep him on the phone at the moment. It meant they were going in circles a bit but Elijah was willing to do that so that he could hear Leo. As he finally came to the apartment building, Elijah asked, “What number was it?”

“Fif-fifteen o three.”

“Ok. I’ll be there soon. I’m coming Leo. I’ll be right there,” Elijah quickly got out, practically jumping out of the car the moment it stopped.

He heard Leo end the call and Elijah broke into a sprint. He anxiously bounced up and down once in the elevator and waited…come on…he needed to get there now…

Elijah rushed down the hallway once he got to the right floor. He knocked on the door and waited, trying to keep himself from banging on the door harder or yelling out. He didn’t want to scare Leo or make him stay locked in his apartment instead.

When there didn’t seem to be any progress after a minute though, Elijah did knock again and said, “It’s me Leo. Please just…”

His words fell to a stop. He rested his head against the door and waited. It was all he could do and—

The door unlocked. Elijah quickly looked up and leaned back a bit. He waited desperately as the door finally pulled open. Leo was there, eyes red and nose running. It looked like it was just from crying but Elijah couldn’t be sure.

“Can I come in?” he softly asked.

Leo nodded. He backed up and Elijah slipped in, immediately grabbing Leo and pulling him into a tight hug. The door closed behind them and he could feel Leo starting to cry into his shoulder.

“It’s ok. I’m here Leo. It’s ok,” Elijah whispered.

“B-but it’s not. I thought…” he stopped again, crying a little harder as Elijah pulled him closer.

They stood there for a while, Elijah waiting for Leo to calm down a bit before he said anything else. One of his hands moved up a bit, gently stroking the back of Leo’s neck as the sobbing stop.

When he felt like it was safe to, Elijah finally asked, “What happened?”

Leo pulled back to wipe at his eyes even as Elijah kept a grip on him. “I…it was because of group.”

Elijah nodded in acknowledgement but otherwise stayed silent, waiting for Leo to say more. It took Leo a moment as he breathed in and out and Elijah looked to see if there was somewhere for them to sit. There was a futon so he guided him that way. Once they sat down, Leo finally started talking again.

“There’s good people there. For the most part. But…but there’s also people there only because of a court order. They just…they just wait to have a slip signed so they can get out of it and that’s it,” Leo got out in a shaky voice. “Y-you can tell who they are. It’s…it’s not that hard. And today there…there was a guy. A new guy and he…he came up to me after the main part. He said he knew…knew where to get good shit and I…I told him I wasn’t interested. I was there to be clean, to stay clean.”

As Leo paused, Elijah kept up the slow, gentle stroking to the back of his neck. “That’s good,” he softly said. “I’m proud of you Leo.”

“D-don’t say that. Because you w-won’t be,” Leo got out. “I told him off but he…he gave me his number in case. And I…I threw it away and left early to come home. But then…I was emptying out my pockets and the post-it note was still there and I-I couldn’t… I thought I could throw it away but it just…the thoughts kept coming and I couldn’t-I took out my phone and I almost-almost—”

“But you didn’t. You texted me. Remember?” Elijah said.

“But I thought-I thought I w-was ok. I thought I was…and then this—”

“It’s ok,” murmured Elijah again, pulling Leo back into a hug. “You asked for help. That’s what’s important.”

“I-I almost didn’t,” Leo hiccupped. He buried his face into Elijah’s shoulder and mumbled, “I thought I was ok.”

“It’s not just one uphill battle. And that being said, it doesn’t mean one incident sends you back to the bottom. It doesn’t matter what you might have done. You called me, that is what’s important,” Elijah said.

“B-but I don’t know i-if I can just-just throw it away.”

Elijah stopped himself from just telling Leo he could. Instead, he went for a different tactic and said, “You’re not alone Leo. You have your father, work. You have me and Chloe. Whatever you do, you have that now.”

“B-but what if I-I do fuck it up? What if m-my dad doesn’t—”

“I can’t speak for Carl but I can for myself. And I will stick by your side Leo. I’ll do all I can to help you because I can see you trying. I know you’re fighting. Understand?” murmured Elijah. “You’re not alone.”

Leo hugged him tighter, hiding his face as his shoulders shook. It took a moment before Leo completely calmed down, just breathing in and out again and again as he stayed close. Elijah kept the calm, stroking motions up. They stayed there for a while before Leo’s shoulders fully relaxed as he leaned back and wiped at his eyes.

There was a sense of him mentally working something out as he slowly kept his breathing continuous. Finally, Leo looked to the kitchen counter and then stood up. He swiftly walked over, picked up the post-it note, and tore it up. He almost threw it away in the trash but then thought better of it and went to the nearest window. He opened it up and threw the small pieces out, fully relaxing as he leaned with his head out.

“I…thank you. Thank you for coming Elijah,” murmured Leo. “I needed the reminder.”

“You don’t have to thank me for that,” Elijah replied as he stood up and walked over to Leo’s side. “I care about you. If there’s ever a time you need me, I’ll be here.”

Leo took his hand and squeezed it. “I don’t…my head feels clear now but why…why was that so damn hard?”

“Because not everything is an obvious trigger,” murmured Elijah. “You got through it though and you reached out to me. I’m proud of you.”

“T-thank you,” Leo mumbled. He wiped at his eyes, closing his window and turning back around to look at his apartment. “Um…so yeah. This is where I…live. God, this is not how I would have wanted you to come over.”

“If you want me to leave, I will.”

“J-just like that?”

“I came over because you asked for help. I’ll stay if you want but I don’t want to impose.”

“N-no you’re not-I don’t really want to be alone right now,” Leo finally fell on.

“Then I’ll stay,” Elijah smiled.

Leo wiped at his face again. “Thank you. I…just give me a second to get cleaned up.” He quickly left the room, leaving Elijah to look around the kitchen and living room. The apartment seemed a little smaller than Gavin’s and the state of the futon suggested Leo slept there more often than not despite that there was a clear bedroom he’d just gone in.

There definitely wasn’t enough room for a washer and dryer so there was probably a laundry space in the basement.

Around the apartment were a great deal of plants, all well taken care of and flush. Elijah spotted a bonsai tree and he carefully turned it around to look at it from all sides. It reminded him of his time in Japan with Amanda and his lips twitched up in a smile with that.

“They help keep me busy when I’m alone at home,” murmured Leo as he came back in, face cleaner and a new shirt on.

“You’ve clearly taken care of them,” Elijah replied. He looked back to the futon and decided to appease his curiosity. “Are you not sleeping in the bedroom?”

“Oh, um…you can come see if you want,” Leo shyly said, going back into the room.

Elijah followed closely behind, his eyes widening in shock. The room was covered in painting tools and canvases.

“I…I mean the apartment’s small and when people are over I didn’t…I didn’t want the only space to hang out be covered up in paint and stuff so I just…sleep on the futon,” Leo admitted. “It’s easier not having to worry about cleaning all this up, you know?”

“Makes sense,” chuckled Elijah as he walked around and looked. There was so much more there than he would have expected. Leo had been busy. As Elijah looked at a canvas, Leo made a shocked noise and Elijah quickly turned to see what it was.

“You-you didn’t even put on shoes?”

“Oh, I suppose I didn’t. I just…I wasn’t thinking of things like that. I got here as quickly as possible,” Elijah honestly replied which seemed to get a small chuckle out of Leo. It felt good hearing him laugh again.

“I’m…I’m not sure if you want to…”

“To paint?” asked Elijah.

Leo softly chuckled again. “No. I just…would you mind watching a movie? I don’t think we’ve ever done something like that.”

“Not at all,” Elijah softly laughed.

They went back into the living room and Leo started trying to clean up a bit but Elijah assured him it was alright. Eventually, Leo just fell on putting a movie in and then sitting beside Elijah. “This all probably seems really small and insignificant to you, huh?”

“What does?”

“My apartment. I mean, you’ve got a damn mansion pretty much…”

“No. Just because my home is, admittedly, probably too big for just me and Chloe, that doesn’t make your accomplishments any lesser. It’s impressive that you’ve managed to maintain a space like this.”

Leo smiled at that. “It’s only thanks to dad. He um…he actually paid for my rent for the first two months. I told him I needed to get out of my old place. That a new change of scenery would really help so he agreed as long as I got a job and stayed clean within that time. It’s only an apartment but it really has helped.”

“That’s good to hear,” Elijah smiled as he settled in and they both started watching the movie.

During it, Leo asked, “Do you mind if I order take out? Will you even eat take out?”

“Please don’t tell me you’re going to try and make another cryptid joke.”

“No,” laughed Leo. “I just mean…you know. It’s not exactly going to be the quality you’re used to.”

“I think I’ll be able to handle it,” replied Elijah. “Order whatever you want. I’m sure I won’t die from it.

Leo laughed again, ordering something not longer after as they finished off the rest of the evening together. Chloe of course texted Elijah during that time but he assured her he was alright and would explain it that night. When it came time to finally leave, Elijah was hesitant but Leo assured him he was going to be ok.

“I’ll text you tomorrow, promise,” Leo said. “I just…thank you for coming. The push you gave me really helped me get through this. You know?”

“I’m glad you know you can rely on me,” Elijah smiled. He hesitated for a split second and then hugged Leo again. Elijah hadn’t realized it but it was like he was finally breathing easy now as he let go and kept his slight smile firmly on his lips. “I’ll see you later Leo. Yes?”

“Yes, definitely,” Leo replied.

Elijah went back to the car, thankfully not running into anyone on the way there. As he drove back home he finally called Chloe.

“Thank goodness. You had me worried,” Chloe quickly said as she answered right away. “I went looking for you and you were just gone. What happened?”

“Leo called. He…he needed a friend. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you but for all I knew, time was of the most importance.”

“Is he alright?”

“He’s good now,” Elijah sighed. “I’ll be home soon.”

“Ok. Thank you for calling,” murmured Chloe. “I’ll see you soon.”

Elijah hung up, leaning back and closing his eyes for a split second. God, he’d been so worried. The fear had been as real as if Chloe had texted him that word, or Gavin. So there was a piece of truth Elijah now knew. He cared so damn much for Leo, enough to run to him, no questions asked. He was so thankful it hadn’t been something worse and in regards to what had happened, he was so very thankful Leo had reached out period.

The fact that Leo had fought to admit he not only needed but wanted help was good and like Elijah had said, he was incredibly proud of him for doing that.

He got home and Chloe was polite enough to not ask for many details. She simply wanted to make sure Leo was alright and then asked if Elijah needed anything to eat. He assured her he was alright.

The next day, Leo texted him as promised, thanking him for coming all that way for him. Elijah let him be for a bit as he was sure Leo had his own things that needed to be worked out. However, after several days, Elijah finally initiated the conversation. It had always been Leo who texted first, to tell him of something that was going on or to ask if he could come over.

But now Elijah was realizing that the feeling in his heart was that he was missing Leo. He didn’t want to push. He wanted to make sure Leo had his time to come to terms with what had happened, but seeing as he hadn’t mentioned anything, Elijah couldn’t help but try.

_Would you like to come over today?_

The moment the text was sent, Elijah couldn’t help his quick glances at the phone. If Leo was busy, he would just leave it at that, but for the moment he was a bit desperate to see what his answer would be.

“Are you alright?” Chloe asked at one point as Elijah continuously rolled his fingers against the top of a table. Again and again…

“Just thinking.”

“About—”

Elijah’s phone dinged and he quickly grabbed it.

“Never mind,” smirked Chloe as she leaned over his shoulder.

Elijah absentmindedly swatted at her as he read the response.

_Sorry I haven’t talked sooner. Yeah. I can be there in an hour._

Elijah smiled just as Chloe said, “I think I’m going to go out.”

He looked up at her with a frown. “I know you do this on purpose.”

“Do what?”

“You leave over half the time Leo comes here.”

“We already talked about this. I think you’re imagining it,” chuckled Chloe. “Give Leo my best.”

Elijah just made an unconvinced noise but turned back to his phone with a smile all the same. He ended up playing with Spooner for a bit as he waited for Leo to arrive and then swiftly hurried to the door the moment he heard the bell.

Leo stood there with a smile. “Hey.”

“Hi. How are you?”

“Good. I…sorry I haven’t talked to you any sooner,” Leo said as he came in. “I ended up talking to the woman in charge of our group. About the incident.”

“How did that go?”

“Well…it was stressful. I was really nervous going into it, but it felt good being honest about what happened. I don’t know if it’ll do any good but I know she’s going to work with the guy for a bit. But also move him to a different time just in case too,” Leo said.

“I’m glad to hear it. So, what would you like to do?”

And like that, Leo was coming back over and Elijah couldn’t help the added smiles it brought to his face. Leo was a little more open about what went on at group now, similar to how Elijah had opened up after that first nightmare. They both were always willing to listen to the other but were always conscious of not wanting to push too far. It was that awareness that made talking to each other all the easier.

Leo would come and paint and read and sometimes a movie would happen with the visits. It kept a warm feeling in Elijah’s chest, a feeling that diminished just a bit when Leo left but always returned the moment he came back.

One day Leo was painting on his skin again. They’d figured out a rather comfortable position, Elijah lying on top of a blanket with a pillow under his arms. Leo usually sat crisscrossed on one side or another, occasionally switching to find a better angle. Elijah had been actually reading some French work Leo had given him but he set it aside now. He crossed his arms and rested one of his cheeks against the propped up pillow.

“Are you bored?” Leo asked as he paused. “We could go—”

“No, you can continue,” Elijah said. “I’m just taking a break.”

“You sure?”

“Yes. You could never bore me,” murmured Elijah. His eyes slipped shut and he let out a calm sigh. He could feel Leo’s paintbrush going back and forth as Leo got on his knees and leaned over a bit, trying to get a better angle without having to stand up and move around. Elijah could almost fall asleep as he’d grown used to the motions.

Or he would have until he felt Leo do something else.

Elijah’s eyes blinked open again but he still remained still as he felt Leo put one hand on his shoulder to stay balanced. One of his legs came around, straddling his backside as Leo carefully sat back and continued painting, a gentle weight on Elijah.

All Elijah did was tighten his fingers, the grip on his own arms. He was hyper aware of every slight movement Leo made. Elijah closed his eyes again, silently swallowing as the calmness from before tried to return. But the new feeling of Leo resting against him was not something Elijah could just ignore as the warmth increased.

He knew his breathing had quickened, even if only a little bit. Could Leo tell? Or was he too concentrated on painting.

Leo’s fingers were suddenly on his neck, brushing away any loose hairs from his bun as the brush went up farther than it had before. Up and then down again along his neck. Elijah shivered, the brush then moving over his shoulder, the scar.

Leo’s hips pushed slightly against him as Elijah tensed. His heart was practically in his throat as he tried to think of something to say or do. However, nothing was really coming to mind as he turned his head slightly and buried his face into the pillow.

He felt the paint brush move over his shoulders, down his muscles and to his right elbow. He felt Leo pause, could feel from the shifted weight that he was leaning over him now, hands on both sides as he leaned over him.

“Elijah?”

His eyes flashed open and he turned his face out of the pillow. He looked at Leo as he leaned over him, so close that his own shirt had to be getting in the paint. And then Leo kissed him, quick and fast on the corner of his mouth. He pulled back but didn’t actually get off him.

“Is that ok?” Leo softly asked.

Elijah’s mind remained frozen. He’d been so focused on simply trying to figure out what Leo wanted that he’d never really thought about what to do if Leo made a move. To be honest, Elijah hadn’t even thought of Leo making the first move.

“It’s just, I thought you might…” Leo paused for a second, his eyes flickering from Elijah’s to Elijah’s lips. He remained perfectly still over him, not moving back but not really pinning Elijah to the floor either. “If it’s ok I just…I would like to kiss you again. If that’s ok.”

Elijah had to blink away his shock. He pushed up slightly, feeling Leo almost flat against him now. He could feel that Leo was tensed, ready to let Elijah push him off if need be. However, he still stayed still, making his own intentions clear as he waited for Elijah’s response.

Leo looked at him with his warm, brown eyes, brow slightly furrowed as he waited for the response.

“Yes, that’s ok,” Elijah whispered.

Leo kissed him again, this time fully on the lips as Elijah arched into the touch. To be honest, Elijah wasn’t sure if they’d properly kissed that one drunken time. He just couldn’t remember it. But he knew he’d remember this as his lips parted and Leo responded.


	4. Growth of a Relationship

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A massive thank you again for everyone reading this and all the people jumping on this ship! A quick note, I made a video for the ship because I couldn't help it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2HZR7rlUm0
> 
> And now for the sad news, school starts for me tomorrow so the last chapter of this and the last part of this series will take a lot longer to write sadly. I'll definitely try to work as hard as I can to get the chapters out quickly though.
> 
> Thank you again for the lovely kudos and comments and everyone reading this. I hope you enjoy this next chapter because it's basically fluff galore!

Elijah had rolled over, now lying on his back as Leo remained straddled on top of him. Leo was leaning down and kissing him slowly. Elijah held a hand to Leo’s neck, stroking the back of his hairline as Elijah opened his mouth more, letting Leo’s tongue slide in.

They parted for a second, Leo giving him a quick kiss again before whispering, “There is paint everywhere.”

Elijah chuckled. “I don’t see an issue with that.”

“You will in a few more minutes when it starts to dry.”

“Point taken,” Elijah replied as he pushed himself up into a sitting position. Leo leaned back at the same time, sitting on his lap. Elijah kissed him again, one hand going to Leo’s hip. He started to trail a finger along his skin and up under his shirt, only for him to put his hand over Elijah’s.

“I…I want this but I need…I need to go slow about it,” Leo softly murmured.

“Slow is good,” Elijah replied as his hand simply rested against Leo’s hip, kissing him once more.

Leo then moved off Elijah and helped him up. Leo started to pull his hand away as he shyly looked down. “I should probably go. You need to clean off.”

“Stay,” Elijah replied, covering Leo’s hand with his own before he could pull away. “It’s around dinner time anyways. Just let me shower first.”

For a split second, it looked like Leo would tell him no. Elijah couldn’t help but worry a little bit. Leo had made the first move but what if he pulled away? What was Elijah supposed to do if-but no. Leo looked away before his eyes flickered up and he murmured, “Ok. I’ll stay for dinner.”

Elijah smiled and kissed him once more before letting his hands drop away. “I’m going to shower. Please feel free to get new clothes. I’ll be right back.”

He walked away, grabbing new clothes for himself and then going straight to the shower. He stripped and put his pants off to the side to clean later thanks to the paint on them. He stepped in and as the multitude of colors started to collect on the floor and flow into the drain, Elijah thought.

So he was going to explore this. He was excited and interested but he now knew what his biggest mistake had been leading up to this. He’d been so focused on analyzing the situation that he’d been completely put off by Leo’s advance which wasn’t how it should be. The most important part was that he liked Leo and it turned out, Leo liked him. He’d need to work on dialing back the passive observer aspect that he was used to acting on. He couldn’t properly explore this if he was too busy collecting data on it.

Elijah would have to explore it naturally, something he wasn’t quite used to but which he knew he could do. His relationship with Gavin had formed naturally but they’d grown up together, were brothers. It was different with everyone else, even those closest to him like Chloe and Carl. At the start there had been a lot of analysis and distance as he’d just looked at the situation.

But to just go with the flow, to not try and predict anything and everything that could happen…it was an interesting idea.

Elijah finished up in the shower and got dressed, brushing his damp hair out of his eyes. He grabbed a hair tie and just did a simple ponytail for the moment as he continued to pad through his home in search of Leo.

Despite what he’d said, he wasn’t too surprised to see Leo was cleaning up and had gathered the paint covered blanket and pillow. He’d already changed into some spare clothes and Elijah couldn’t help but laugh, Leo’s stature noticeable shorter and less wide than Elijah’s.

Leo noticed the staring and looked down at himself. A slight blush and a slow smile formed as he mumbled, “I can’t exactly help that I’m shorter than you.”

“No, I think it’s sweet,” chuckled Elijah. He walked over, hesitating for a second as he started to compare their past interactions to how he possibly should act-no. He was doing it again. He stopped his train of thought and simply cupped Leo’s face, his thumb gently stroking Leo’s cheek. “Is this alright?”

“Yeah, it’s good,” replied Leo, his soft smile growing a little wider.

As Leo tipped his head up, Elijah gently kissed him again. He slowly stroked Leo’s cheek as he opened up his mouth more. He felt Leo grab at his shirt, keeping him close when he finally did pull away.

“I…um…I’d thought that you might…but I’m still a bit surprised,” mumbled Leo.

“Surprised?”

“I know you said you c-couldn’t get bored with me. But I’m just…I work in a damn coffee shop and paint on your back,” Leo said, the last comment clearly meant to be more humorous though Leo still looked away.

“And you think those facts could bore me?” Elijah softly asked.

“I’m not as smart as you. I definitely don’t get how you can code things so—”

“And you think that matters to me?” murmured Elijah. He paused, reminding himself to go with what felt natural. So he kept up the gentle stroking along Leo’s cheek and said, “You enjoy watching me work which is all I could ask for. And it would be far more boring if I were dealing with someone that was basically the same as me.”

“But what about—”

“You’re worth it to me. So can we just agree that we both mutually want to explore this?”

Leo paused and then quickly kissed Elijah, swift and chaste as he leaned back again. “Yeah, I can agree to that.”

“Good. I’m going to put everything that needs to be washed away, and I’ll meet you in the kitchen. Alright?”

“Yeah, sounds good,” smiled Leo.

Elijah hesitated for a second but then softly kissed Leo again. The answering smile seemed to show he’d made the right decision as he gathered everything up and got it ready to wash. He went to feed Spooner next and then went to the kitchen, Leo already there and waiting at the counter.

“I think tonight calls for something simple. I’ll just make some sushi and miso soup.”

Leo chuckled. “You mean from scratch knowing you. And that’s what you call simple.”

“I have everything. Should only take…twenty minutes tops to finish it.”

“Do you want me to do something?”

Elijah instructed Leo in what to get out though he kept a hand on truly making everything. That left Leo with long stretches of nothing to do and he incrementally got closer and closer to Elijah. Finally, he was almost touching his back, though not quite as he murmured, “Is this alright?”

“Yes,” Elijah replied as he felt Leo wrap his arms around him. Leo kissed the back of his neck. He stayed there until Elijah needed to move to a different part of the kitchen, only then finally backing off again.

“This week is really busy for me. I don’t think I’ll be able to come over again until next weekend,” Leo suddenly blurted out.

“Where did that come from?”

“N-nothing. I just…I don’t want you to think after today that I’m avoiding you or something,” Leo shyly replied. “I’ll-I mean if you want to I can try to um…come over sooner it’s just—”

“It’s perfectly alright Leo,” Elijah said. “You still have your life to deal with. I can’t expect you to drop everything because of me.”

“Yeah. I um…I really can’t,” Leo softly chuckled. “But um…if I could, would you want me to?”

Elijah paused to step closer, again gently caressing his cheek. “I think I would very much like that.” They both went in for a mutual kiss, Elijah adding, “If it were possible.”

“Yeah,” chuckled Leo.

For a moment, silence fell between them as Elijah finished with the food and then…

It was just normal conversation. They talked about the upcoming week, Leo told more stories about his coworkers, and they threw some French back and forth at each other. Things weren’t awkward though they had changed. Elijah chose to sit next to Leo rather than across from him. What might have been a small bump of contact between them now lingered as they both carefully tested the waters.

After dinner, they ended up in the library. Again, the conversation was basically the same. However, instead of sitting away from each other, Leo made a point to immediately lean against Elijah. The contact wasn’t something Elijah was familiar with, not in this context. He decided he liked it, at least in regards to Leo. And he found that he could level the playing field, making Leo stumble over the French language by gently stroking his jaw line in between words.

It couldn’t last forever despite how curious Elijah still was. He wanted to keep exploring. But reality couldn’t be so easily ignored.

The French lessons had severely fallen apart, the two having slowly changed positions throughout it until Leo was resting on Elijah’s chest and in between his legs, both lying on the couch. They gently kissed, one of them occasionally going to kiss the other’s nose or along their jaw line but otherwise still staying simple and slow.

In between one set of chaste kisses, Leo murmured, “I really do need to head home now.”

“Alright,” Elijah murmured, kissing him again before moving back.

“Just…alright?”

“Don’t misunderstand. I would very much like to hold you here without regard for tomorrow. But I don’t want your day to start off poorly because I kept you here too long. I know you have work in the morning.”

It was easy to tell how much Leo appreciated that as he blushed, quickly kissing Elijah again. “Thank you.”

“It’s no issue,” Elijah smiled. “I’ll get your clothes. They should be clean by now.”

After getting Leo his clean clothes and he changed, Elijah still followed Leo to the front door. There was no need to go with Leo. He’d grown used to letting himself out. However, Elijah couldn’t help but want to let the moment linger for a few extra seconds. So at the door, Elijah was ready to make some sort of move. He’d kiss Leo and gently hold his face and murmur a temporary goodbye.

But Leo beat him to it, grabbing him quickly and pressing their lips together. It was hard not to smile as Elijah opened his mouth, letting Leo in as he pushed back in response. Elijah could tell he’d already be counting down the days before Leo could visit again—

“Oh, I just knew it!”

They both jumped apart, one of Elijah’s hands coming to his mouth. Though painful, it was hard not to laugh as he mumbled, “You bit my tongue.”

Leo went bright red with clear embarrassment as he whispered out an apology. Chloe was already quickly hurrying past them, an apologetic look on her face too.

“So sorry for that! Ignore me! And congratulations of course,” Chloe said, her voice returning to its normally soft and polite lilt. It quickly jumped up again though as she added, “But ignore me!” and disappeared behind the door to the pool.

It was hard not to laugh at that and once Chloe was out of sight, Elijah moved forward and chastely kissed Leo. “I think we can both agree,” Elijah said, “that we should be a bit more tactful next time.”

Leo winced. “Sorry again.”

“It’s ok. Though I would definitely prefer if that didn’t become a habit.”

Leo finally laughed and relaxed at that, nodding in agreement. He kissed Elijah back and finally said, “I really do need to go.”

“I know. Have a safe drive Leo.”

“Thanks,” Leo replied.

Elijah watched him leave and the moment the main door closed, the door to the pool opened and Chloe’s excited face peaked around the corner. “Tell me everything!”

“No, first of all, I knew you were leaving on purpose!”

“Well you certainly weren’t going to do anything with me hanging around every second,” she grinned. “So what happened?”

“We kissed. End of story.”

“Then why did you change clothes from earlier today?”

“You know, I think I made you too smart.”

“Like you actually believe that,” laughed Chloe as she came over and wrapped an arm around Elijah’s. They started to walk to the living room as she said, “Now tell me what happened. And don’t give me this, you just kissed stuff.”

Elijah laughed again as they went to talk.

In the coming days, Elijah couldn’t help but think of Leo. He even texted Leo first, curious and a little desperate to assure himself that things would keep going. When Leo texted back, he couldn’t help but sigh in relief. The conversation continued. The most important part of their connection hadn’t changed even if the physical aspect had.

Elijah wanted this to work. He was excited, but he also couldn’t help but anxiously wait for the next time Leo came over. He wanted to make sure that a new pattern could be set out of the old. Sometimes it just shocked him that it had happened at all, that Leo had made the first move. He just needed the assurance that it hadn’t been a fluke.

At one point during the week, Gavin elbowed him hard in the side. Elijah let out a pained gasp as he pushed Gavin back.

“What was that for?”

“I swear, you’ve been lost in thought for like an hour. I’ve been waving my hand in front of you for ages damn it. Stop thinking of fucking numbers and coding shit,” Gavin sighed.

Elijah rolled his eyes and…he almost thought to ask Gavin’s advice. Yet the subject at hand had just never really come up between them. Gavin had been more open yet flippant about his relationships but they’d never exactly given each other advice. So again, when Elijah could have told him about Leo, he just didn’t correct him.

The days passed, the weekend came and—

_Hey, I’m going to come over now._

Elijah couldn’t help but smile just as Chloe suddenly wrapped her arms around him from where he was sitting. “I guess I’ll take Connor up on that offer,” she teased.

“You know, you really don’t have to leave every time he comes over now,” chuckled Elijah.

“Don’t worry, I plan to be back by dinnertime. I don’t intend on letting you keep Leo all to yourself. I do enjoy our friendship,” Chloe laughed. “I’ll see you later tonight.”

Elijah rolled his eyes and watched her go before turning back to the text with a smile.

It was less than an hour before Leo was back again, showing a sweet smile as he looked down and shuffled his feet.

“Hey. Again.”

Elijah softly laughed. “Hello Leo.” He gripped Leo’s arm and pulled him close, softly kissing him as the front door closed behind them. “I’m happy you’re back. How was your week?”

“Very tiresome,” chuckled Leo. “It’s good to finally relax.”

“I’m glad you know you can relax here. What would you like to do?” murmured Elijah as he softly kissed Leo’s lips and nose and cheeks and eyes that had fluttered closed.

They ended up in the painting room, Leo talking about his day as he straddled Elijah’s back and gently moved the brush back and forth. This time Elijah was able to go back to a feeling of calm, though there was an undeniable heat in the pit of his stomach as he felt Leo against him. He murmured responses to Leo’s stories, his fingers absentmindedly writing out lines of code. Occasionally Leo would lean over him to give him a quick kiss, or even kiss a place on his back before he moved his paintbrush over the area.

It felt nice, Elijah softly sighing in response to each touch.

Eventually Leo leaned back a little more and said, “I don’t want a repeat of last time. Stay still so I can take a picture.”

Elijah softly chuckled and didn’t move as Leo took a picture and saved it. Afterwards, Leo leaned back down to kiss Elijah on the mouth but carefully moved back again.

“I don’t want to have to wash my clothes again.”

“I don’t know. I quite liked you in my clothes,” chuckled Elijah as Leo blushed.

Still, he did clean off before he made any other moves and they ended up in the living room. For once, they decided to watch a movie. Elijah lied down instead of sitting and after Leo hesitated for a second, Elijah gently pulled him down with him. He noted the slight wince as he wrapped his arms around Leo.

“Are you ok?”

“Yeah, yeah totally. It’s just…um…” Leo hesitated for a second as he toyed with the hem of his shirt. He finally pulled it up to reveal his side. There was a faded, old tattoo. “It’s just tender from the laser surgery. I’ve been planning on getting it covered up and wanted to make sure the new one looked as good as possible.”

Elijah gently traced the edges and kissed Leo’s neck at the same time. He felt him shiver. “What are you going to cover it up with?” whispered Elijah.

“I’m not a hundred percent sure yet,” mumbled Leo. He turned to look at Elijah and their lips briefly met again. “I told my dad about it. He’s been looking through old, unpublished drawings. Said he’d be happy to find something for me.”

“That’s sweet of him.”

“Yeah and…I’d rather it be something meaningful than the generic crap that’s there right now.”

“I’m sure whatever it turns out to be, it will be beautiful,” Elijah said, stroking Leo’s side once more before wrapping Leo up in his arms again.

Chloe got home not long after the movie finished and the three of them ended up in the kitchen. Leo was a bit hesitant and still blushing from the memory of Chloe getting home last time. However, He did stay close to Elijah and eventually started up the soft touches and quick kisses here and there as he grew more comfortable in doing that in someone else’s presence.

Elijah couldn’t help but smile as he saw that this could work. The fact that Chloe’s bright looks and smiles also showed her support warmed Elijah’s heart. It was good to know his closest friend approved.

When it came time for Leo to leave again, Elijah couldn’t help the regretful sigh that escaped his lips.

“It won’t be as long as a week. I should be able to come over on Tuesday actually,” said Leo with a small smile of his own.

“I’m happy to hear it,” Elijah said with a lingering kiss. “I’ll see you again soon.”

He watched Leo go and only a few seconds later, Chloe popped up again with a bright smile on her face.

“Elijah, I’m so happy for you,” she said, quickly going to him and hugging one of his arms.

“I’m just glad to see you approve,” chuckled Elijah.

“When are you going to tell Gavin? You certainly can’t plan to keep these both separate forever.”

“I honestly don’t know. I don’t wish to just flippantly tell him. I’d like them to both meet again, properly now since Christmas,” Elijah said. “I wonder what Gavin will think.”

 “He probably won’t believe you,” chuckled Chloe. “And then he’ll make some disgusted face when you do something cute to prove him wrong.”

“Something cute?” asked Elijah with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes, you’re both adorable around each other,” Chloe smiled.

“Well, you’re adorable for being so happy over this,” Elijah said as he tapped Chloe’s nose. “Now, tell me how your outing with Connor was. You didn’t really get a chance to talk about it over dinner.”

“Oh! Well it wasn’t just us. It was also some of his colleagues, though Gavin wasn’t there because of a case, and…”

So the days passed and Elijah continued to explore his relationship with Leo. They pushed the boundaries of their relationship slowly, going a little farther each time. Elijah started to gently trace circles in Leo’s skin, often right above his hips. Leo kissed him more deeply hands roaming down.

And still the conversation continued. The friendship that this had started out as only strengthened. To think he’d grown so used to being near another human after so long pushing off any type of social interaction. Of course, a very special set of circumstances had formed for this relationship to start at all. However, Elijah found that he couldn’t be happier.

Every time Leo came over, Elijah’s day was immediately brightened and he loved the closeness that had grown between them and continued to do so.

One day in particular they grew closer as Leo painted his chest instead. He sat in Elijah’s lap as Elijah just looked up at him. He could look at Leo as he became lost in concentration all day. Occasionally Leo actually focused on Elijah’s face though, a smile always appearing on his lips as he leaned down and kissed Elijah again and again.

As Leo continued to paint, Elijah got to resting his hands on Leo’s hips, softly rubbing circles into Leo’s skin. The kisses lingered longer, making it take even longer for Leo to finish. He eventually did though, leaning back and taking a picture with a smile.

“I especially like this one,” Leo said.

“Why so?”

“I got to get a picture of your face in it.”

“You really are very sappy,” murmured Elijah with a small smile as Leo put the phone away.

“It’s nice to be sappy,” Leo replied. He leaned down and kissed Elijah, at first being mindful of the paint on his chest. Leo kissed him a little harder though and they both got lost in the touch. They moved closer despite knowing the mess that would come of it. And then as Leo slid his tongue against Elijah’s, he experimentally rolled his hips and Elijah gasped into his mouth.

Leo moved back a little, giving Elijah a chaste kiss as he whispered uncertainly, “Was that ok?”

“Yes, more than ok.”

Leo did it again and Elijah let out a soft moan in response. They kissed and this time Elijah pushed his hips up just a little. The noise that escaped Leo’s throat made Elijah grow warmer. He moved his hands underneath Leo’s shirt, going up farther. He got out between the kisses, “Is that ok?”

“Yeah just…hold on,” murmured Leo. He leaned fully back. He stopped for a second, fingers gently rubbing the hem of his shirt. Elijah slowly stroked his leg. He could feel how the tension in Leo completely disappeared as he relaxed against him. He finally took off his shirt and quickly kissed Elijah again, almost like he was trying to distract him.

Elijah pushed him back just a bit and whispered, “I want to see you.”

“I…ok,” murmured Leo. He sat back again as he took Elijah’s hand, softly rubbing their fingers together. “I’m not much. I know.”

“Not much?” murmured Elijah. “You’re beautiful.”

Leo blushed. “You mean that?”

“I wouldn’t say it otherwise,” Elijah replied. He let his fingers trail along the pale tattoo before resting on Leo’s leg again. He pulled Leo back down into another kiss. “Can you stay tonight?” murmured Elijah.

“I…” Leo stopped to let out another gasp. “I would…but I’d still have to leave early.”

“That’s alright with me. I’d like you to stay.” When Leo didn’t immediately respond, Elijah added, “But only if you wish to.”

“Y-yeah. I want to stay.”

Elijah smiled, drawing him into a slow kiss before Elijah pushed himself into a sitting position. Leo pushed against him and Elijah welcomed the friction, pulling Leo’s hips forward at every chance he got. Elijah trailed a finger right underneath the hem of Leo’s pants. Each unexpected gasp and soft moan Elijah captured with his mouth.

The paint dragged across their skin, the image smearing until it was utterly unidentifiable. Some even got in their hair as hands moved from holding the other’s hips to running down their chest or cupping the other’s cheek. Elijah felt Leo’s growing arousal as they barely moved their lips from the other’s.

They were as close as could be before Elijah finally murmured, “The paint is going to dry soon.”

Leo softly laughed, running a thumb over a speck of blue that had somehow gotten under Elijah’s eyes. “Yeah, it would probably be a good idea to clean up.”

“Do you want to join me?”

Leo blushed as Elijah gently kissed his chin.

“It’s perfectly alright if you don’t—”

“No uh…what’s the point in both of us going in separately. Right?”

Elijah smiled and softly stroked Leo’s hair. “Shower or bath? I have both.”

“Bath I guess.”

“Bath it is.”

Leo got up first. He went from holding Elijah to simply taking one of his hands as he helped him up. They gently kissed before Leo stopped to rest his cheek against Elijah’s and Leo just breathed him in. Elijah stroked Leo’s neck for a second before he murmured, “This way.”

Elijah took his hand and guided him to the bath. It was actually connected to what was now the guest bedroom. After all, Elijah hadn’t kept the place the same over the years. What he preferred had changed over time along with just where he liked things positioned. Of course, the entire house was always kept clean with everything perfectly in place so they didn’t have to waste time getting bath supplies or towels.

Once in the bathroom, Elijah finally let go of Leo to turn on the water. As the water turned warm and filled up, Elijah took Leo up in his arms again.

“It’s alright if this is too much right now,” Elijah softly assured him.

“No. I want to be here. I want to be with you,” Leo replied. “I’m sure of it.”

“I’m glad to hear that because I want to be with you,” said Elijah. He kissed him slowly before going to the hem of his pants. He still waited just in case. He looked to Leo who nodded before he slowly stripped the rest of his clothes off. Leo shyly followed suit before he kissed him again.

The tub was filled and Elijah got into the water, keeping a gentle hold on Leo’s wrist to pull him forward as well.

Leo lowered himself in. The tub was large but they stayed closer, gently and slowly exploring the other’s body. Elijah took up soap which he lathered over Leo, gently cleaning him as he rested between Elijah’s legs. He continued to kiss his nose and cheeks and jaw line and eyes. He stroked him and continuously asked, “Is this ok?” and “Do you like this?” in response to every gentle motion.

Then it was Leo’s turn as he washed away the paint and threaded his fingers through Elijah’s hair. They adjusted several times before finding a comfortable position. It seemed they almost always ended up with Leo in Elijah’s lap. Soft, careful motions had them both letting out soft moans and occasional, unexpected gasps. But they still went slowly, mainly just cleaning each other with kisses in between.

They continued at a slow, regular pace until completely clean and then it was out of the tub. They could have easily dried themselves but they kept with the intimate touches. Elijah found that he especially liked drying Leo’s hair as it remained tussled and messy.

“Come to bed with me,” murmured Elijah.

“Gladly,” Leo replied.

There was no need to get dressed again as they went to the bed. Elijah sat back against the headboard as he pulled Leo towards him. Leo straddled him, going from kissing his lips to kissing his neck and along his shoulders. Elijah’s hands moved lower, first stroking Leo’s stomach and then lower still, keeping up the steady motions as he felt Leo tense against him. Leo kissed his neck again before letting his head resting against the crook of Elijah’s neck. Leo let out a soft moan that had Elijah’s stomach curling pleasantly.

And then Leo carefully pushed his hips against him and Elijah wrapped his arms around Leo’s lower back to continue the friction.

“Are you happy?” murmured Elijah, his voice becoming more breathless and soft.

“That’s-that’s an odd question,” Leo mumbled out.

Elijah paused so that he could gently caress Leo’s cheeks. “I want to make sure you’re happy. It’s the most important thing that I can think of right now.”

“Are you happy?” asked Leo.

“More than you could know.”

“Then I’m happy. God, you make me so happy,” whispered Leo tilting his head to kiss Elijah slow and deep. He opened his mouth, moaning into Elijah’s mouth as he slid against him.

The pace never increased, not greatly. They both wanted to take all the time they could, remaining as close as possible as they kissed all over the other’s body. Elijah didn’t have anything on hand to use so they kept with the soft stroking and grinding.

“You’re beautiful,” murmured Elijah.

“So are you,” Leo replied in between the kisses, fingers tangled in Elijah’s hair.

Elijah and Leo tensed, the friction increasing just barely as Leo stayed flush against him.

“Please,” Leo whispered and Elijah pushed forward just a little more, pulling Leo’s hips closer at the same time as he groaned into Leo’s ears. Elijah held Leo’s shuddering body against his own before he kissed him again.

Elijah fully leaned back, falling into the pillows as he pulled Leo with him. He ran his fingers through Leo’s hair. He kissed Leo’s forehead and held him in his arms.

He fell asleep with Leo wrapped around him, and Elijah couldn’t think of another time he’d felt so content in this way.

Elijah slept peacefully and woke up with Leo still in his arms. The younger man had an arm wrapped around his torso, softly snoring as he twitched slightly, his rough chin rubbing against Elijah’s chest. At some point in the night, Spooner had come in as well. He was curled up on the edge of the bed, his head perking up as he noted Elijah was awake. Elijah held up one finger, telling Spooner to hang on just a few more minutes. He would feed him soon.

He then turned back to Leo. He softly caressed Leo’s cheek, feeling him slowly grow more aware as he curled into him more.

“Leo,” Elijah whispered before he softly kissed his forehead. “Leo.”

“Hmm…you’re here.”

“I’m here,” replied Elijah. Leo pulled himself up just a bit and they chastely kissed as Elijah gently traced Leo’s jaw line. “I’ll miss you today.”

“I’ll miss you too,” Leo smiled. “I won’t be able to come back tonight.”

“That’s ok,” murmured Elijah. “I’ll simply look forward to when you can come back.”

“Why are you so understanding?”

“Because I care. I want you to be happy and I know you have other obligations.”

“Thank you,” Leo whispered.

“You don’t have to thank me for that,” Elijah smiled. They softly kissed again as Leo finally started to move back.

“I need to get cleaned up.”

“I could join you.”

“I think that would take up far too much time,” chuckled Leo as he gently kissed Elijah again.

Elijah smiled as he replied, “That’s fair. I’ll get you some spare clothes then.”

“Thanks.”

Leo kissed him again and went to the bathroom. As he did, Elijah went to the edge of the bed too and Spooner jumped to his feet. “Just a few more seconds,” smiled Elijah. “You know I would never forget to feed you.”

Spooner meowed in response as Elijah went and grabbed a spare set of clothes for Leo. He set them on the bed before going to his own bedroom to quickly shower and change. After that, he went to the painting room but wasn’t too surprised to see it had all been cleaned up. Chloe must have done it sometime last night.

He then went and fed Spooner and ended up getting to the kitchen after Leo who was leaning on the counter next to Chloe. She must have said something well meaning but teasing as Leo had gone bright red. The color grew only brighter as he spotted Elijah and a shy smile moved across his lips.

“I’ve made breakfast,” Chloe brightly said.

“Thank you. And please,” Elijah added, looking to Leo, “tell me you’ll stay for that as well.”

“Yeah. Yeah I should have time for breakfast,” Leo smiled.

They had a nice, simple breakfast before Leo did have to leave. At the door, he promised to bring Elijah’s clothes back to which Elijah simply kissed him and murmured, “I don’t mind. I like seeing you in them.”

Leo softly chuckled and they kissed again before Elijah murmured, “I look forward to when you can visit again.”

“I do too. I’ll try to make it sooner rather than later,” Leo replied.

“Have a good day.”

“You too,” smiled Leo as he finally left.

As the door closed, Elijah let out a slightly sad sigh. He definitely hated that Leo couldn’t stay as long or as often but he knew the smile on his lips wasn’t going to diminish even a bit today.

From then on, Leo couldn’t stay every night he visited but on the nights he did, Elijah always pulled him close and kissed him deep as they moved against each other.

The days passed and every moment Elijah got to have Leo in his bed, he woke up with a smile and any time he knew Leo was coming over, his face only brightened more. The intimacy increased after each visit and though Elijah hadn’t specifically said it, he could admit to himself that he was falling in love. It was the only word that seemed to encompass just how deeply he had come to care for Leo.

Even just the days where Leo couldn’t stay long were enough for Elijah, just sitting near each other as they talked or did a French lesson or watched a film or whatever. Chloe still joined them from time to time, again showing she’d meant what she’d said in regards to keeping up her friendship with Leo. However, she was mindful of giving them privacy as well.

As the relationship continued, Elijah took note that he’d never been the incredibly sentimental type. However, with the reemergence of a social circle for himself, pictures had been popping up on his phone that he always flipped to when he was bored or simply wanted something to smile at. There were many of Gavin and him, Gavin enjoying messing with him and capturing random moments. Chloe had also taken up the hobby so there was a fair number of her too.

The first time Elijah got a picture of Leo though, it was Leo that took it. They were curled up on the couch after a movie. Leo couldn’t stay that night, would have to leave in a few minutes, so they slowly kissed in way of goodbye. And then Leo asked, “Can I have your phone?”

“Why?” asked Elijah even as he handed it over.

“I have so many pictures of you. I want you to have something of me.”

Elijah kissed Leo’s ear lobe and then the bit of skin beneath it. “What? Are you afraid I might forget you?” he teased.

Leo softly laughed and shook his head. “Not at all. But it’s what…it’s what couples do. You know?”

“Before you say anything, I am too old for the term boyfriend,” chuckled Elijah. “That makes me feel like I’m sixteen again which isn’t exactly a time I’d like to relieve.”

“I don’t think many would,” Leo laughed.

“But partner, I think that would be fine,” Elijah murmured as he caressed Leo’s cheek.

“I like that. It doesn’t sound as fleeting as boyfriend. If that makes since. It sounds like…it sounds like it can last.”

“I hope it does last,” replied Elijah.

“Really?”

“Most assuredly.”

Leo smiled, turning more into Elijah to softly kiss him again. He turned away and held up the phone. “Alright now make sure you smile.”

Elijah softly laughed as he glanced to Leo right as the phone’s camera shuttered before he could actually look.

“Oh, I definitely like this one,” Leo said.

Elijah looked at it. “Do I really look at you like that?”

“Um…yeah?” Leo uncertainly said.

“Good because you deserve it,” replied Elijah as he kissed Leo again.

Leo sighed into it before carefully pushing back. “I can’t stay tonight.”

“I know. I remember,” sighed Elijah. “I’ll walk you out.”

And after that day, Elijah would occasionally pull out that photo, them curled up on the couch as Elijah looked lovingly at Leo. To think he could ever look at someone like that. It only proved the thought that Elijah had kept to himself. He really had fallen for Leo.

Then Leo texted him something new.

_Could we go on a date?_

Elijah blinked in surprise. He supposed the question was a valid one. All Leo did was come to him, his home. Elijah hadn’t even gone back to Leo’s apartment not that Leo had ever really wanted him to. Elijah texted back, curious of what he’d have to say.

_What do you have in mind?_

_I was thinking of a park. Belle Isle Park. Maybe even a picnic._

The texts came quickly, uncertain. Elijah could imagine Leo anxiously waiting, wincing with each one he sent as he waited for a response. Again, this was something Elijah never would have done before, but he’d gone out with his brother on occasion, and it wasn’t right just making Leo come to him at every spare moment he had.

_I’d like that. How about we meet there?_

They set up a date and Elijah couldn’t help the warm feeling he felt at doing this. Since school was still in session for their area, they planned to go around midday during the week when most would be busy and there wouldn’t be a great deal of people around.

As Elijah waited for that day to come, that ended up being the week he met Janay and Dipsikha. Elijah was happy to see that his work with Markus had finally come to fruition. He was also glad to see Nines back and in Gavin’s life. He imagined the android would do his brother good and there was undeniably something there.

And again, Elijah was given the chance to be truthful with Gavin. He really almost thought to but no, the point had been helping Janay so Elijah had focused on that problem at hand. Perhaps another time…

After Janay was in her new body and finally a teenager, Elijah got word that the girls sadly happened to be leaving on the day he’d set with Leo and Elijah didn’t want to cancel last minute. However, he did get to wish the girls well since he’d given them his phone number and they sent back a picture of them getting onto the plane with Nines.

By this point, he was already at the park, sunglasses on due to how bright the day was. Elijah avoided the small groups of people and kept to himself as he walked to the meeting spot. He was looking forward to this and wanted it to turn out to be a good a day since it had been Leo’s idea. Elijah knew that some people had spotted them shopping for Janay and he didn’t want people lingering or taking photos of this.

He texted Leo again and he confirmed he was already there. Elijah headed in the direction of the garden’s conservatory. As he did, he looked around, taking note of the mix of humans and androids. Some of the androids blended right in with humans, at least to most. For Elijah though, he could easily tell even without the LEDs and once regulated clothes. They moved different to humans, more graceful and their motions more consistent. They also remained perfectly balanced on the center points of their feet where as a human’s walk constantly changed in where their balance was focused.

Elijah moved his eyes from examining everything around him to looking to the path ahead. He eventually turned off the path and into the grass as he just barely spotted Leo up under a tree. It was a good spot, away from everyone that was out and shaded from the sun.

Leo spotted him, his face lighting up as Elijah walked closer. Elijah propped his sunglasses on top of his head as he came into the shade and sat next to Leo who had already laid out a blanket. He softly kissed him as he moved closer, placing an arm around Leo’s shoulders.

“I like seeing you in the sunlight,” murmured Leo.

“Have I moved up from cryptid to vampire?”

Leo blushed and laughed. “You still remember that?”

“And I’ll never forgive you for it,” Elijah teasingly said with another quick kiss. “How was your week?”

They talked back and forth. Leo’s old tattoo had gone through the last round of laser surgery necessary for the new tattoo and he showed Elijah some of the designs his father had pulled up, asking his opinion on them.

Leo also mentioned that he had another job he was starting. It was just as a guide and cashier at the local art museum but it would be a foot in the door and paid better anyways. He’d talked about possibly showing his paintings one day, like his father. Elijah had gently encouraged the idea but so far Leo had been hesitant to actually call anyone. The fact that he was willing to step into the art world, even if in a different capacity for the moment, was a good sign though.

As Leo talked about the new job, he also admitted he wasn’t ready to let the coffee shop job go just yet. However, once he knew the new job was going to work out, he’d likely switch over full time to it.

Elijah congratulated him again and then it was his turn to talk. He told Leo about the girls and his own busy week. He showed the pictures of them and for a bit, ‘nerded out’ as Gavin would have put it as Elijah went into some of the technical aspects. He also added that Nines, the android that had come to his and Chloe’s rescue during the kidnapping, had been the one to escort the girls to him. Elijah wasn’t sure, but he had an idea that Nines was back for good too and he mentioned some of the teasing he’d put his brother through which caused Leo to laugh good and hard. As Elijah continued, Leo grabbed his backpack to pull out what containers he’d brought.

“It’s nothing special,” Leo said as he handed one to Elijah.

“That’s alright. Being here with you is more than enough,” he replied.

“You don’t have to get that sappy over a damn sandwich,” Leo said as a soft blush moved across his cheeks.

“I can’t help it. I just love seeing how you react whenever I do,” Elijah murmured with another quick kiss.

They continued talking for a bit, just filling each other in on their days. Elijah asked if Leo would be able to come over, if he could stay the night, and Leo mumbled out a yes between a kiss.

When most of their conversation had slowed, they enjoyed the silence between them and started to watch the people walking on the paths. Most were parents with kids too young for school or just singular people. Some were young couples in college. Elijah was pretty sure two were young enough that they were skipping school as well, something he never would have thought to do since he’d never even been to high school.

“I want to tell people.”

The words came out of nowhere and Elijah looked to Leo curiously. They’d been sitting there a little over two hours now, the shadow in front of them having lengthened and the food gone. “What do you mean?”

“About…I want to be able to mention you in conversation. I want to be able to say that I have a partner. That you’re my partner.”

Leo wasn’t looking at him now but instead at the ground. Elijah gently caressed his cheek as a small sigh escaped his lips. He should have known this conversation would come up at some point. Elijah hadn’t thought much of it either. In all honestly, he’d pushed it off a bit, knowing it wouldn’t be easy.

Now his mind quickly ran through the pros and cons, the problems of admitting it, most of those problems falling on Leo sadly. Elijah kept up the gentle motions before finally turning Leo’s cheek towards him. When Leo finally looked him in the eyes, Elijah kissed him lightly and said, “People wouldn’t be easy on you. There’s a reason my brother is happy he isn’t connected to me. Through public records at the very least.”

Leo tried to look away again but Elijah gently urged him to keep looking at him. When Leo closed his eyes, Elijah pressed his lips against them and then his nose and back down to his mouth before he added, “I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. I love it. The fact that you want people to know makes me incredibly happy. But I can’t have a say on this because telling people wouldn’t affect me. It would affect you.

“The curiosity wouldn’t last forever. It would fade and the people’s focus would turn to someone else. But for a bit, you would be hounded by press. Some might even try to smear your name because of your past,” Elijah continued.

“Yeah, I…I don’t think I could handle that right now,” murmured Leo. “But…but maybe one day…and I could at least mention you by first name. Right?”

Elijah’s heart lightened a little at that. The fact that Leo still wanted to try, even if it had to be in a more quiet way, made him happy. “Of course. You should go at your own pace. Whatever you want, it’s fine with me. If it’s never, then so be it. Or perhaps one day we’ll be able to get to the point where you can take me to a friend’s party and I can spend the entire time bragging about how beautiful my partner is.”

“Don’t you have that the other way around? Shouldn’t I be the one bragging about you?”

“Not in the slightest. I would brag about you so much they’d grow sick of me within in an hour,” murmured Elijah. He wrapped an arm around Leo and pulled him into his lap as Leo chuckled and kissed him again. “Remember, whatever pace you need to go at, I’ll walk right beside you.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

Elijah held Leo as a cool breeze moved by them, rustling the leaves above them and the grass around them. As they sat like that, Elijah silently wished this could have been easier. He could care less what people said or thought about him. Besides, he may have a personal social circle back, but he had no future intentions of ever fully returning to public life. Even when he’d been younger he’d barely had a public life if he ignored all the things he’d done with Carl and Amanda.

But Leo’s health was the most important variable in the equation and Elijah could easily see how the pressure could become too much for him. And if some stupid, tabloid magazine pulled up the drug and alcohol abuse? It could very well crush Leo. Now was just too soon for him, despite his want to tell people. It was possibly the first and only time Elijah had ever wished he had something closer to a normal life if just for Leo.

As he thought through this, Leo brought him out of his mind with another question. “Could I start slow though? Tell maybe one person?”

Elijah frowned slightly. The idea wasn’t a bad one and if Leo felt ready to tell someone close, then Elijah certainly wouldn’t stop him. However, he couldn’t think of who Leo could be thinking of. “Who?”

“Dad. Carl.” Almost the moment the words were out of Leo’s lips, Leo burst into laughter, undeniably feeling Elijah tense against him. “Is that really such a bad idea?”

When Elijah didn’t say anything, Leo turned in his lap somewhat so he could get a better look at him.

“Are-are you scared?” Leo asked, his tone clearly showing his doubt over that.

“Carl is the closest thing to a good father figure that I’ve had and you’re suggesting that I tell him I’m dating his son that he’s only recently reconnected with,” Elijah deadpanned. “It’s terrifying.”

Leo started laughing again as Elijah pouted.

“I’m being serious.”

“I-I know you are,” Leo managed to get out. “I just never thought something could scare you. Not like this.”

“Well congratulations on finding it,” Elijah said with a roll of his eyes.

Leo laughed again and gently kissed his lips. “Come on. Don’t tell me you don’t want him to ever know.”

“No…I do…honestly I didn’t really think of this before. But I would feel bad never getting the chance,” sighed Elijah.

“So is that a yes?”

“…yes.”

“Don’t look so mournful. What could he possibly do?” chuckled Leo.

“Run me over with his wheelchair?”

“You know, I think I’d like to actually see that.”

“Please don’t jinx me,” Elijah sighed. Leo chuckled, kissing him again. As he pulled back, Elijah said, “I suppose this works though. Markus and I were planning to visit him together.”

“When? I can make sure I’ll be over there too.”

Elijah told him the planned date and time before commenting, “Markus may already know. By the way.”

“You told him?”

“I hinted at it. He appeared to understand what I was getting at.”

“And…”

“And nothing. He accepted it. He seemed glad to know you had someone. He mentioned you both finally talked.”

“Yeah it was…painful to say the least,” sighed Leo. “But I’ve grown. I’m older. I know dad will always see Markus as a son too and I’m…I’m ok with that. I…I don’t know how much we’ll see of each other. You know. Down the road but…if we cross paths enough, I’d like to think we could become friends.”

“That’s very mature of you.”

“Yeah? I just, I want to make things right. I really do.”

“I’m sure Markus knows and appreciates that,” Elijah smiled. However, a tired sigh left his mouth as he murmured, “So less than a week before I face Carl.”

“Stop moping. It’ll be fine.”

“I don’t understand how you seem so relaxed about it.”

“Honestly? I don’t know either. I just know I want him to know. That I’m excited for him to know.”

“Well that makes one of us,” Elijah replied with another roll of his eyes.

They ended up staying there a little longer in comfortable silence, small conversations drifting in and out before Elijah suggested they meet back up at his home. They left separately, again Elijah drifting away from the crowds and any eyes that could recognize him.

Once home, it ended up being a peaceful evening with Chloe there as well before they all retired for the night.

Several days passed before the planned meeting was upon them. At the very least, Elijah imagined that informing Gavin would be a piece of cake after talking to Carl. With Gavin, the only thing he was really risking was his brother’s teasing which Elijah easily got him back for now that he knew Nines was staying.

With Carl though, despite the joking with Leo, Elijah was risking…possibly everything. Sure, Carl couldn’t physically do anything and one could argue he wouldn’t be around for much longer. It wasn’t like he could stop it if he disapproved. But if he did…

Elijah’s heart actually hurt at the thought of that. The idea of Carl rejecting him was a familiar pain, reminiscent of his unjust anger and confusion that had caused the broken relationship with Gavin for far too many years. Perhaps Leo was right to not worry for himself. Carl had just got his son back. He probably wouldn’t want to lose him after all that lost time. But in regards to Elijah? Doubt was creeping in and it made him anxious once the day was upon him.

When he got to Carl’s house, it was at the same time as Markus. The android looked at him curiously, brow furrowed as he almost opened his mouth. However, Elijah spoke before he could and said, “I know my heart is beating over the standard set of sixty to a hundred beats per minute and I know I’m bouncing up and down on my feet. I don’t need the exact numbers.”

A small smile broke out across Markus’ face as they both started to walk up the driveway. He looked to Elijah with amusement. “Is this about Leo?”

“Yes,” Elijah honestly replied.

“Then I don’t see why you would be nervous. I’m sure Carl will be happy for you both.”

“You should know by now how irrational humans are,” sighed Elijah. “I can’t help but be nervous of what could come of this.”

“You? Nervous?”

“I know it’s difficult to process but yes,” Elijah sighed with a slight grumble. “To be honest, I’ve never even done this.”

“What do you mean?”

“Meet the parent so to speak. It doesn’t matter that I’ve known Carl for years. It’s…different,” sighed Elijah as they came up to the front door.

“If it’s any consolation, I think it will turn out fine.”

“Hmm, we’ll see,” Elijah replied as they both walked in, the door politely welcoming them back.

The doors to the living room were wide open. A sound of hurried footsteps came their way as Leo appeared, having arrived a little earlier.

“It’s a pretty good day for him. We’ve been in the garden.”

Elijah smiled at that. It had been a while since he’d seen Carl out of bed. They followed Leo through the living room and the old work studio before going into the garden. Carl was hindered by more machines than he had once been, but he looked good out in the sunlight. He was sitting by the garden table, a pot of tea out and chairs already set up for Markus and Elijah.

“My boys,” Carl warmly said as they came over. “It’s good to see you both here.”

Markus and Elijah hugged Carl before sitting down. Thankfully, it seemed Leo didn’t intend on jumping straight into their relationship. They enjoyed some tea and caught Carl up on what they’d been up to. It was nice and would have been calming if Elijah wasn’t so nervous.

Then Markus mentioned going to grab dinner and Leo suddenly agreed. Elijah started to stand but Leo waved him to sit back down and Markus caught on quickly.

“We can handle it between the two of us,” Leo smiled. “We’ll be right back.”

Markus gave him a quick, encouraging smile as Elijah resisted the urge to scowl. He wondered why Leo had left though. Hadn’t he wanted to tell Carl together? Or perhaps considering Elijah’s nervousness, he’d thought it would be better if they spoke one on one. Whatever the reason, the opportunity was before Elijah and he silently decided it was probably better to get it over with.

His heart was in his throat as he waited to make sure Leo and Markus were back inside before turning to Carl. Before he could get a word out though, the old man said, “Alright Elijah. I haven’t seen you this nervous since you were waiting to see if Chloe passed the Turing Test. What is it?”

Elijah softly laughed, Carl’s words easing him just a bit. “You were always good at seeing through the masks.”

“Or perhaps you’ve just never been as good at hiding your thoughts as you believed,” Carl replied. “Tell me, what is it?”

Elijah placed both hands on the table, fidgeting slightly as he looked away. “You…Leo has mentioned that we’ve talked. Spent time together.”

“Yes. It’s good to know you’ve both become friends.”

“Well…about that,” Elijah murmured. He paused to try and release the tension in his body. He needed to just come out and say it. Still, he couldn’t quite look Carl in the eyes. “Leo and I have started a relationship. Actually, we’ve been in one for several weeks. Well over a month.” Elijah turned quite again. His hands kept fidgeting, the small motions only increasing when Carl still hadn’t said anything. The fear at what would come increased. Elijah finally chanced a glance up only to see Carl sitting perfectly still. Eyes closed. “C-carl—”

“I’m thinking. Not dead Elijah,” Carl mused, a small smile appearing on his lips.

A groan slipped out of Elijah’s mouth as his head hit the table and he hid his face behind his arms.

“All I’ve seen in over seventy years and you really thought something as trivial as this would be what offed me?”

“No,” came Elijah’s muffled response.

Carl chuckled warmly and Elijah finally looked up as he felt Carl put a warm hand on his arm. “I’ve known you for a long time Elijah. I’ve watched you grow from a teenager into a man. I trust you to do right by him. If you’re looking for my blessing, you have it.”

Elijah felt like he could collapse as he took Carl’s hand in his and sat up a little straighter. “You won’t believe how good it is to know that.”

“I think I might have an idea,” Carl smiled as Leo and Markus showed up with two trays. “You were right Leo. He was so nervous he thought he’d killed me with shock,” Carl said, laughing hard enough that he actually went into a bit of a coughing fit.

“H-hang on you-you already told him?” asked Elijah with a pained expression as Leo sat next to him.

Leo looked shyly down and said, “I wasn’t sure if you’d make it to today you were so wound up about this. So I talked to dad. I was planning on just telling you but he insisted that it would do you good to admit it yourself.”

Carl cleared his throat with some water, laughing again as Elijah quickly put his head down, covering up his face again. “I can’t believe you,” came the muffled response. “You’re all horrendous people.”

Elijah felt Leo gently stroke one of his hands with a finger. “You don’t actually mean that,” he said confidently.

“No, I don’t,” groaned Elijah as he sat up again. He looked across at Markus’ amused expression and quickly pointed a finger at him. “Oh, don’t give me that. How about we spend some time embarrassing you and talk about Simon. Huh?”

“Who’s Simon?” asked Carl just as Markus quickly blushed.

“I-I well I was planning on—” Markus shook his head to better clear his thoughts. He was still smiling even as he shot a playful glare Elijah’s way. “You’re a horrible creator Elijah. I would have thought that connection would have meant more to you.”

“The psuedo-sibling relationship trumps that,” Elijah shot back. “I’ve embarrassed myself enough. Come on, it’s your turn.”

They laughed and Elijah leaned back as all tension fully left his body. It was hard not to smile as they sat in the softening sunlight and when Leo offered his hand, Elijah took it without worry.


	5. The Passage of Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A massive thank you as always for the lovely kudos and comments! Considering this story was going to be a lot shorter, I'm so happy with how it turned out and thank you to everyone who's stuck around for so long!
> 
> Now, I want to give a quick overview to what the last story in this series will be real quick. I would love to just continue this series forever but I don't want to get burnt out and want to give everyone a nice book-ended story that references back to all the previous characters and relationships along with ending on a sort of final, super fluffy note.
> 
> The story will be relatively short, between 10,000 and 20,000 words. Because I've gotten used to doing the long chapters, that means the story will likely only be one chapter, maybe two if it starts to lean towards the 20,000 word mark again. I'm going to start on the final part right away but again ask for your patience as I don't have the time I used to have to write whenever I want with school back in session and my work schedule becoming more hectic again. I promise I'll get it out as soon as possible though!
> 
> With that said, I hope you enjoy this final chapter for this story! Thank you again and I look forward to seeing everyone in the final part!

After the rather anxious truthfulness with Carl, Elijah knew telling Gavin would be easy. Over the coming days, he tried to think of a good way to do it though and as he pushed off opportunities, Elijah realized there still may be some nervousness involved, even if it was easier than telling Carl again. The reason was that it was similar in the fact that like Carl, he wanted Gavin’s approval. He didn’t fear Gavin’s response like with Carl but what if Gavin didn’t like Leo? They’d only interacted at Christmas and barely that.

So Elijah did push it away bit by bit. When he was with his brother, he simply focused on teasing him about Nines. It was incredibly easy to rile him up over the subject, and with Leo he focused on him.

Eventually, Leo finally got the new tattoo done. He’d shown some of the designs to Elijah but had ultimately decided which one he wanted without telling him. When Leo could, he visited and stayed the night, both retiring early.

Still in their boxers and shirts, they kissed with Leo lying against his chest and between his knees. He pushed back though with an excited look on his face. “Ready to see it?”

“Yes,” Elijah smiled. He watched Leo throw off his shirt, revealing the new tattoo. It was a colorful geometric flower pattern, the arms trailing up to right below his ribs. Elijah pulled him close. He kissed around it before wrapping Leo up and pushing him to the bed. One hand gently traced the skin above Leo’s boxers and he whispered, “I want to see it all.”

Leo blushed with a soft smile as he pushed them off underneath Elijah, revealing the end of the tattoo that rested on his hip. Elijah gently traced around it as Leo shivered beneath him. Elijah kissed along his neck, going lower and lower as he whispered, “You’re beautiful,” again and again.

Every moment Elijah had with Leo, his heart felt fuller. It brought forth something else that Elijah realized he needed to work up to besides telling Gavin. He also needed to work up the courage to tell Leo he loved him. Because he did, deeply and purely.

Once the words were out, Elijah wouldn’t be able to take them back. He wasn’t afraid of that. He’d whisper them again and again once he mustered up the courage. But again, it was Leo’s reaction that made him hesitate. Would it be too much for him? Would Leo see it as going too fast too quickly? Elijah couldn’t say for sure and again, it made him nervous.

He had to work up to the issue, but working up to it and him telling Gavin came to a hard stop near the beginning of June. It had been a few weeks since Elijah had told Carl and though there was technically a week before summer started, it felt hot enough to be in the middle of it. Elijah had continued his work with Markus though he often did it from home. However, he was at Cyberlife today, working beside Markus as they went over how their first repair shops had done and how to keep the places sustained.

Elijah got a call mid speech. He frowned, quickly taking his phone to see the number. No one just called him. Gavin always made sure he wasn’t busy beforehand if he did feel like doing it and Leo just texted. But the contact said it was Leo and Elijah’s worry quickly set in. Was he in need of help? Was it like before?

Elijah didn’t hesitate in answering it as Markus looked to him, brow furrowed in curiosity and concern.

“Leo, what is it? What’s wrong?” Elijah asked, trying to keep his voice from betraying just how worried he was. He waited for a response, knowing Leo was there because of the breathing on the other end. Each breath that he listened to sounded shakier, more uncertain. There was a sudden sniff. Markus had slowly come closer as worry became the dominant emotion on his face. “Leo?” Elijah murmured as something dark fell into the pit of his stomach.

“I…I talked to Chloe. She said you’re at Cyberlife. Is…is Markus with you?” Leo asked. He spoke in a whisper, like if he talked any louder he’d completely break.

And that question, it gave Elijah a pretty good idea of what this was about. “Yes,” Elijah softly said. “I can put it on speaker.”

“Yeah that’s-yeah good. I don’t…I don’t want to have to repeat this again.” Leo paused for a second as Elijah put it on speaker and set his phone onto the table. Elijah gripped Markus’ arm and the android looked to him with wide eyes. Leo finally spoke. “Dad is…he’s um….he’s gone. He isn’t…he fell asleep for a nap today. About three hours ago now and he just…he didn’t wake up. He’s gone.”

Silence filled the room as Elijah bowed his head and his grip on Markus tightened. He could feel the android tense against him.

“I-I can’t-there’s just-I just got him back and now there’s lawyers and funeral information a-and I don’t-don’t know what to do,” Leo fell on as he had to stop and start multiple times. “I-I need-please just—”

“We’ll be right there Leo,” Elijah interrupted as he slowly opened his eyes. “Right Markus?”

“Yes,” he slowly said. “We’ll come over immediately.”

“You’re at…you’re at Carl’s home still. Right?” asked Elijah.

“Yeah there wasn’t-it’s not like there was a reason to ride in the ambulance or anything,” Leo whispered. “You’ll…you’ll be here soon?”

“Yes, we’re heading over right now,” Elijah promised. “Do you want me to stay on the line?”

“No it’s-its’ ok. I’ll see you soon.”

“See you,” murmured Elijah. He hung up and let out a soft sigh as he rubbed his eyes. “Do you want to come with me?”

“Yes, I would.”

Elijah was glad of that. He didn’t really want to be alone either though he wouldn’t have said it. Carl was…gone. It was a fact that Elijah knew he was going to have to face soon but this soon? It felt good having Markus near him but he still made sure to hurry to Carl’s home for Leo’s sake.

They drove in silence and once there, Elijah jumped out of the car and rushed to the door. It opened for him and he walked in calling out, “Leo?”

“Living room,” came the reply. Leo had said it loud enough that Elijah could hear him, but it sounded like he wanted to whisper, or like he didn’t want to say a single thing at all.

Elijah walked forward, each step seeming to echo in the house. He’d never hear Carl’s wheelchair rolling across the floor, see the machine carry him from the top to the bottom of the stairs and back again. His laugh…Elijah would never hear it again.

He forced a deep breath out of his lips. He’d miss all that but…he had been ready for it. No human could last forever. Not yet anyways. That was a mystery Elijah had never gotten close to answering and probably never would. But Carl had lived a full life. The accident had been a dark time but he’d grown out of that too. He’d had Markus and he’d fixed things with Leo, all before it was too late.

Elijah wished he’d had a say. He would have asked Carl to stay, just a little longer. But since it hadn’t been his choice, he realized that, though not fine, he could live with this. Nothing could be done anyways even if his heart hurt. His main concern was Leo.

He walked into the living room. Leo was standing off to the side, hugging himself as he stared down at the main table, full of just…so many papers. He didn’t look up, not even as Elijah walked over and gently hugged him from behind.

“There-it’s all ordered. Somehow. But I just…I don’t know what to look for. I never thought I’d…” Leo stopped himself, adjusting himself so he could hold Elijah’s arms.

Markus walked over, each step clearing hurting. Elijah looked to him. As hard as this was for Elijah, he’d already known loss and he’d definitely known pains worse than this. But Markus, this was the first person he was truly close to that he’d lost. This was his father. At least Leo had experience, even if it was small.

“We’ll work through it all. Together,” murmured Elijah.

“The um…the lawyer that dad had said he’d come back tomorrow. But he said…I think…that is t-the house it…I’m sure you know about it,” Leo mumbled. “But um the uh…property rights and androids are still something that um…that like legally they’re working out but the um…the house was put under my name. Instead of j-just going on the market like it original was…I just…I didn’t want it. He knew I wouldn’t have…wouldn’t have wanted all this but maybe-I just think he s-saw a way for you to keep your home. It was n-never mine. So if you…want it um…”

Markus took in a deep, hard breath. Leo finally looked up, his face uncertain but desperately hoping he’d said the right things.

“T-thank you,” whispered Markus his voice just barely wavering. “I’d very much like to keep the house.”

“Good. I-I’m glad. The other things are just…I think there’s a few things he mentioned specifically. That he wanted you and um…you, Elijah, to have. But I just um…”

“We don’t have to do it now,” said Elijah.

“Waiting won’t change anything.”

“But it may be a little easier,” Elijah said, giving a gentle, comforting kiss to Leo’s cheek.

“I…no. If we wait, then it’ll just keep weighing me down. I want it done. I w-want it over with,” Leo got out.

Markus quickly nodded in agreement.

“Then we’ll work through it. Let’s see, what this?” murmured Elijah, picking up the first paper.

Eventually, he urged Leo and Markus to sit down, got them both to relax a little more. They went through the papers slowly, making sure no details were overlooked. They all left the little group at different times, Markus going to privately talk to his friend, Leo finally getting up the courage to call work and talk to those he needed to get in touch with.

Elijah eventually left as well, answering Chloe to inform her of what had happened. Then he called Gavin, canceling all plans they’d had that week. Even before he mentioned the funeral, Gavin noted the tone in his voice. He turned soft finally, murmuring, “What’s happened?”

“Carl’s gone.”

“The painter? The guy I met at Christmas? The guy who could somehow make even you blush and get embarrassed?”

Elijah let out a soft laugh tinged in sadness. “Yeah, him.”

“Shit. I…do you want me to come over?”

“No. No I’m at his house. Starting to figure what goes where and all that. I’m with Markus and Leo.”

“As long as you’re not alone.”

“I’m not.”

“Just…promise me you’ll call if you need anything. I’m here for you bro. I promise.”

“Thank you,” sighed Elijah. “I’ll keep you updated. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Later.”

And then it was back to working through the papers. Markus went to make them dinner. He had done it for Carl. He wanted to do it again, the motion normal and something he needed. They took a break when the food was done, at first not saying anything. Then slowly, Markus got out, “I remember how much he hated taking his medication. He would complain about it all the time. It was probably the most childish that I’d ever seen him.”

Elijah and Leo softly laughed. Leo said, “I remember when I told him about the tattoo. He actually seemed excited, trying to find designs that I liked. It felt nice.”

And then the conversation kept rolling and for a bit, the sadness was pushed to the side as they just focused on the good times, the good memories and moments of laughter.

As the night wore on, Elijah finally leaned back and said, “Let’s finish this later.”

“Yes, I think I’d like to retire,” sighed Markus.

They cleaned up and Elijah asked Leo, “Do you want to come home with me? I understand if you want—”

“I want to be with you,” Leo interrupted.

“Ok. Then we’ll go home,” murmured Elijah.

Markus ended up getting a cab for himself as Elijah took Leo home, holding him the entire way there. Chloe greeted them with downcast eyes and soft questions. Elijah followed Leo’s lead and when he declined any of Chloe’s attempts to help, Elijah simply said, “I think we’re going to go to bed early tonight.”

“Goodnight Elijah. Leo,” she said, gently squeezing Leo’s shoulder and walking away. She whisked Spooner up in her arms as well, giving them both complete privacy as they headed to Elijah’s bedroom.

They didn’t speak as they got partially undressed, Elijah putting on sweats before gently pulling Leo to bed. He softly brushed Leo’s hair with his fingers, both wrapped up in the silence. And then that silence broke. It was slow, the cracking gradually moving over them as Leo’s shoulders shook.

Elijah brushed away his tears as Leo went to hugging himself, hugging the tattoo. “I-I m-miss hi-him—”

“I know Leo. I know. Just let it out. I’m here. You can let it all out,” murmured Elijah as he pulled Leo closer. Silent tears fell down his cheeks as Leo sobbed into his arms, growing louder and louder until he reached the crescendo and just buried his face into Elijah’s arms. His shoulders still shook but the noise had quieted as they both fell asleep.

For Elijah, he knew upon waking up that the world was different. Carl was no longer there. And yet it kept on spinning, same as it always had. Elijah slowly counted his own breathes as he gently kissed Leo’s forehead. He and Markus still had work to do. Elijah had his brother and Chloe. He had Leo. He’d make sure that the funeral and the handling of Carl’s possessions were done properly. However, over the sadness was a stronger feeling.

Thankfulness. He was just thankful Carl had been there for him when he’d needed him and that he’d had the chance to know him at all.

Elijah gently kissed Leo again, urging him to get up even though he was sure Leo wanted nothing more than to curl up in bed.

When Leo finally did open his eyes, Elijah changed to gently stroking his cheek. “How are you?”

“I feel like shit,” Leo mumbled, his voice a little rough as he wiped at his dry eyes. “B-but I don’t feel so…I don’t know the word. But yesterday I was trying to hold it all in. F-for the paramedics and the lawyer and you and Markus and just…it felt good to let it all out.”

“You don’t have to try and hide anything from me,” replied Elijah.

“I know. I-I don’t think I’m going to break down again. Just…” Leo was quiet for a second, thinking things through before he softly said. “I think I knew. He just…I said goodbye. Even though I was planning on coming back in the afternoon. I didn’t know why I said it-not at the time but it just…I don’t know. I miss him. I wish…”

“Focus on the good, on the fact that you were both able to reconcile at all,” Elijah said.

“Yeah…yeah that’s probably a good thing.”

Leo finally pushed himself into a sitting position and covered up his eyes for a second. His shoulders shuddered and then with another sigh, he pushed himself out of the bed. “I’m going to take a shower. Meet you in the kitchen?”

“Fine by me,” Elijah replied.

As Leo went into the shower, Elijah got dressed and headed to the kitchen. Chloe was there making food with Spooner at her feet, occasionally eating things she purposefully dropped on the floor. She looked up with a sorrowful smile and gently took Elijah’s hand as he came near. “I know you probably aren’t in the mood to eat much, but I know you. You’re going to work all day getting his possessions in order.”

“I’d rather it get done quickly.”

“Which is fine,” Chloe smiled. “But I don’t want either of you going hungry. Sit. It should be finished any moment.”

Elijah obeyed and it wasn’t long until Leo joined him. After some gentle encouragement, Leo finished his plate and then they were off. Elijah contacted Markus and they met back up at Carl’s place. He managed to get an appointment with the lawyer and they began to finish what they’d done yesterday with much clearer heads.

That week was spent informing old friends, getting things moved out of the house that Carl had wanted given to someone or some organization, closing accounts and actually setting up the funeral. Everything else slowly got easier as they worked through it except the funeral arrangements. Information like what coffin to get and Carl’s final clothes seemed so pointless at this point but they worked through it together. Tears were still shed, sometimes all they could do was grab whoever was closest.

Just because the three of them had dealt with the immediate feelings in their own way didn’t mean the pain wasn’t still present for now. It would probably last for some time.

Elijah did go to see Gavin once before the funeral, simply wanting to hold his flesh and blood family for a moment. Gavin asked if he wanted him at the funeral and Elijah thought about it for a moment. However, Elijah was closing a chapter of his life that had really been his alone. He needed to do it by himself and there wasn’t much point in dragging Gavin along just to put him through the somber event.

So when the day finally came, he went with Leo and Chloe, and met Markus at the church. Since Carl had only asked for a select few people to be there, Elijah had kept any information about the time and place out of the papers and minimized the media presence as much as possible. It was short and small, exactly what Carl would have wanted. He wouldn’t have wanted to drag everyone’s day to a complete stop, to make it a big deal. Death was death. It was life and what you could do with it, that had always mattered to him.

Elijah spoke briefly. It felt right, considering he actually knew most of the faces there. For Markus and Leo though, they chose to stay silent and after the burial occurred, everyone else scattered. It was in those silent moments that Leo and Markus gave their final words, Chloe and Simon standing a respectful distance away.

There wasn’t a wake planned and after it was all done, Markus and Simon politely parted ways. Elijah and Chloe stood a little longer with Leo as he wiped at his eyes again. They’d mostly stayed dry through the whole thing and now that it was over, a wait seemed to have slipped off Leo’s shoulders.

“I have to go back to work tomorrow. I asked off for as much time as I could,” Leo murmured. “Doesn’t feel right, knowing he’s gone and yet things just go back to the way they were.”

“It doesn’t mean his life was any more meaningless. He left his mark on the world and lives on through us, through Markus, and his work.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right there,” Leo sighed. He wiped at his eyes again. “I’ll leave pretty early but…can I…?”

“Of course. You never have to ask,” replied Elijah.

They went back home. They watched a movie and had dinner before finally falling asleep. Elijah understood what Leo meant. He’d felt the same way when Amanda had passed, when he’d been younger and even more lost.

Despite the initial breakdown, Leo was doing good. He woke up a bit tired but ready to get to work, Elijah kissing him and telling him to have a good day. Still, he kept a close eye on Leo, toeing the line between showing concern and not wanting to overstep his boundaries. He talked to Leo daily even if Leo couldn’t make it out to the house. He wanted to make sure Leo found his pattern again and got comfortable in it.

Leo also had to adjust that pattern to something slightly newer. After all, his times spent at Carl’s were now gone from the equation and there was time he needed to fill it with. Elijah just wanted to make sure he stayed busy, that in the times he was alone, he wasn’t falling with no one to support him.

With that in mind, he couldn’t very well convince Leo to just move everything to his own home. He had responsibilities in the city and such an uprooting was the exact opposite of what Leo needed. So they saw each other when they could, just like before, and the sadness slowly became a little less painful.

Elijah wasn’t sure that Leo had really picked himself back up though, not until he texted Elijah first, asking to go on a date. It was the first really active thing Leo had asked of Elijah since the funeral and Elijah jumped at the opportunity. They ended up choosing the same place as before, the park.

It was the middle of the summer now, not really a time Elijah enjoyed being more partial to his jackets and cooler temperatures. However, when he spotted Leo, he immediately could tell this was the season for him. It was bright and clear enough that he also had sunglasses on, splayed out in the shade under another tree and away from most groups of people.

Elijah sat next to him, kissing him lightly before he asked, “How was work?” And that really showed Elijah that that they’d moved on and were beginning to live their life again. Before, it had always been, “Are you doing ok?” But Leo didn’t need him to ask that over and over again. He looked good, he looked happy, and he immediately went into a long, rambling story about work and some idiots he had to deal with.

As they sat there, Elijah eventually asked, “So what else have you been doing?”

Before, Leo would answer with not much, being a little tightlipped and closed off over what he’d been doing since he no longer used spare time to visit his dad. Those moments of being rather distant had worried Elijah but instead of brushing it off, he actually answered this time.

“I just…no one’s probably ever going to see them. Or even want to see them, but I’ve been painting,” Leo replied as he pulled his phone out. He flipped to the photos and shyly showed them off.

Elijah blinked in surprise. “This is—”

“There’s more. If you want to keep flipping.”

Elijah did so, seeming more and more surprised before he murmured, “You did all these in just over two weeks?”

“Yeah I just…I guess I was trying to make some type of tribute or something. And I thought…well I figured he’d say all that sorrow was a waste if I didn’t do something with it so…yeah. I made those. For him,” murmured Leo.

“They’re beautiful.”

Leo smiled, his disbelief just a little less than it had once been, now not immediately doubting Elijah. “Which is your favorite?”

“This one,” he murmured, quickly flipping to one. At first, he’d had trouble really seeing what it was but after turning it a bit, Elijah had realized it was an interpretation of Carl’s garden, though with colors and strokes that never would have shown in reality.

“Yeah, that one was especially cathartic.”

“I wish I could have watched you. I always enjoy watching you paint,” Elijah murmured.

“I mean, you still do. And it’s not like it would make any sense for you to drive all the way to my apartment for like…only fifteen minutes at a time,” Leo said.

“You could just move it all to my house.”

The words came out automatically. Technically, it wasn’t explicit but it was obvious from Leo’s expression that he got the hinted meaning. Leo’s brow furrowed, his lips pursing as he clearly tried to think of a response.

Elijah spoke quickly with a shake of his head. “I’m sorry. It’s a stupid idea.”

“No it’s…it’s not that,” Leo slowly said. “I…I’ve honestly thought of that.”

“You have?” Elijah asked in surprise.

“Yeah I mean, the drive is a bit long but I wouldn’t mind that as long as I consolidated some things instead of having everything spread out over the whole week like it typically is now. And obviously I’d only have to worry about fuel, not rent so I wouldn’t mind paying for that,” Leo said. “And I’d obviously see you more often, which I’d like but just…it hasn’t even been a year since I’ve been clean. I need to know I can stay clean while independent before I become dependent on someone else, like that. And maybe a year will pass and I’ll know and maybe…maybe I still won’t be able to do something like that. I’m sorry. It’s unfair for me to make you wait like that.”

“No, no not at all,” murmured Elijah. “I value the time we have together. You shouldn’t feel obligated in any way that you have to give more than you’re able to give.”

“Y-you actually mean that?”

“Of course.”

“But you just-you just asked me to move in. I mean not actually,” said Leo, “but aren’t you upset? Or at least disappointed in some way?”

“Why would I be? I want you to be happy and healthy. If that means living in your own apartment, so be it. I wish I could wake up with you nearly every morning, but what I want more is you being happy. If doing this assures you more happiness, then so be it,” Elijah replied.

“But why?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” murmured Elijah. “I care about you. I would have hoped my actions showed that.”

“They do,” Leo quickly said. “I know you care.”

“Then why the need to ask at all?”

“Because I was hoping to hear you say something else,” Leo admitted.

Elijah’s brow furrowed for a second before understanding flashed across his face. “Ah.”

“Sorry. Not trying to rush you or anything.”

“No, I was worried I might be rushing you,” Elijah softly chuckled.

“Seriously? You know I-I’m not some breakable teacup.”

“I’m not trying to insinuate that you are—”

“I know! I know you mean well but I’d also just like to hear you say what…what you want to say,” Leo said, ending in a soft whisper.

Elijah gently stroked Leo’s chin, turning his face towards him even as Leo glanced away.

“Just…whatever it is. I’d like you to speak your mind.”

“Whatever it is?” Elijah said with a low chuckle. “I think you know what I’d like to say.”

“Yeah, but it’s different actually hearing you say it. Please?”

Finally Leo’s eyes flickered back to his. Elijah continued his soft stroking as he stared back. Just three little words was all he had to say. And Leo so clearly wanted to hear them. That fact warmed Elijah’s heart so he spoke the truth that he’d held onto just in case.

“I love you,” Elijah murmured, brushing his lips against Leo’s. “I love you so very, very dearly.”

“After everything?”

“Because of everything,” replied Elijah. “I’ll fight for you, lows and highs. You’re worth fighting for.”

“Say it again,” Leo whispered.

“I love you.”

Leo gently held Elijah closer as they kissed again. “And again?” he breathlessly asked.

“Je t’aime.”

Leo laughed as he curled into Elijah’s arms, their foreheads pressed together and noses touching. “Glad to see my lessons are starting to pay off. Though your pronunciation is terrible as always.”

“I try to be sweet and you insult me,” murmured Elijah with a sly smile. “I see how it is.”

“Oh I love you,” Leo laughed again as he kissed Elijah slowly before resting his head against Elijah’s shoulders.

“Please tell me you’ll stay tonight though,” Elijah said.

“I’ll have to leave early.”

“Perfectly acceptable,” murmured Elijah as he took Leo’s hand and held it close.

They stayed out in the sun a bit longer. As they silently sat there, Elijah thought through the other issue, Gavin. His reasoning for holding off from telling Leo he loved him had been right, even if it had turned out Leo wouldn’t have minded. But in terms of his brother…

Elijah had come up with reason after reason as to why Gavin and Leo shouldn’t meet. Yet despite the logic he’d used, it was just another cover to try and ignore the fact that it was pure nerves. He’d already rekindled his brotherly relationship with Gavin but something like this was new. Elijah had never cared for someone in a way like Leo, had never wanted his brother to meet that person so badly. Really, he had no reason to doubt that such a meeting would go poorly. It was just Elijah’s own nerves and the bloated logic that he’d put up around him that had allowed him to put it off for so long.

He’d tried working his way up to it and then Carl…

No, it wasn’t really a reason. Obviously Elijah wouldn’t have wanted their first meeting to be at the funeral of Leo’s father but Elijah had still used the event as more of a reason to push off the meeting than had been necessary. He was used to compartmentalizing his life and he’d created two distinct ones with how he interacted with Gavin and how he interacted with Leo.

But in telling Leo how he felt, finally, it just enforced how important it was to finally push these two parts together.

Before they left their spot in the shade, Elijah murmured, “It’s my birthday in about two and a half weeks.”

“Really? Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“I honestly wasn’t planning to celebrate it,” replied Elijah. “It’s just never been a very important day for me. But my brother’s insisted on celebrating it and I’ve conceded there’s no way to stop him in the matter.”

Leo laughed at that. “What? Not even changing the locks on your doors?”

“I’m fairly certain he’d find some way to break in and would assault me with a cake if I tried to refuse him,” Elijah replied with a humorous smirk. As Leo laughed, he added, “I’d like you to meet him, properly this time. I figured it would be an easy way to do it.”

“Really?” asked Leo.

“Yes,” Elijah replied.

“I would love that. I felt like it’s been long overdue.”

“It has,” agreed Elijah as he kissed Leo once more and finally they stood up.

They went to his home and soon the days were passing again. As Leo had said, he couldn’t come over every day but just as Elijah had promised, he simply cherished the chances they had.

As his birthday approached, Elijah told Gavin to bring along Nines as well. Elijah hadn’t gotten to know the android incredibly well besides what he’d done for him and his brother. But considering Elijah was introducing his partner, it only felt right that he begin to learn more about his brother’s beyond the constant teasing that Elijah subjected him to.

Besides Gavin and Nines, Elijah was just going to have Leo and obviously Chloe there. It wasn’t going to be a big thing and he’d deal with whatever Gavin had planned, knowing his brother meant well.

When the day finally came, Leo came over early having asked for the day off.

“Happy birthday,” he said, kissing Elijah at the door before coming in.

“Thank you. How was your day?”

“Good. I’ve finally decided I’m going to work at that gallery full time now. I sent in my two week’s notice for the coffee shop.”

“And you think it’s the best idea?”

“Yeah. I mean, I’ll miss some of the people I’ve worked with but I’ll try to keep in contact with a few of them. I feel like the gallery gig will actually get me somewhere though,” Leo replied as they walked to the living room.

Chloe was there and jumped up, quickly walking to Leo. “I’m glad you could make it,” she smiled brightly. “How have you been?”

Leo repeated what he’d just told Elijah as the three sat down and casually began to talk as they waited on Gavin and Nines.

Chloe was in the middle of discussing one of her trips to the city when Elijah heard the tell tale noise of the door opening as Gavin let himself in.

Elijah swiftly got up and said, “I’ll be right back.”

He had something he wished to talk to Gavin about first. He’d already told him over the phone but he wanted to make sure his brother adhered to it.

 He met them in the hall, Nines passing him with a polite nod as he headed towards the kitchen with presumably a cake in hand.

“How does it feeling being an old man bro?”

“You’re three months younger than me. Don’t sound so cocky,” chuckled Elijah. He looked over Gavin’s person and though there was a package that Elijah had no idea what could be in it, there thankfully was no case of anything that Gavin had brought either.

“I didn’t bring any fucking drinks,” Gavin said with a roll of his eyes. “Though I don’t understand why the hell you were so focused around that.”

“Leo is here. I didn’t want anything triggering for him.”

“Who?”

Elijah rolled his eyes. “Carl’s son.”

“Oh! Wait, so is like, Markus here or something?”

“No, just Leo.”

Gavin got a weird look on his face but just shrugged. “Well, I guess I’ll have to tell Nines to just throw up that bottle of Jack I had him secretly swallow for me and throw it away.”

“What?!”

“Nah, he didn’t really do it but I like how you believed me for a split second,” laughed Gavin as Elijah just let out a long groan and slowly rubbed his face.

Gavin then held out the package like he wanted Elijah to take it but then quickly pulled it back just as he reached for it. Elijah rolled his eyes again. “What, do all gifts have to be given after cake?” he dryly asked.

“No. I just know you get obsessive over problems so I’m going to let you suffer while you try and fail to figure out what this is,” grinned Gavin.

Elijah’s mind, which had been doing exactly that, ground to a halt. “You’re true evil. You know that?”

“Guilty as charged,” laughed Gavin as he walked by Elijah.

Elijah just shook his head and followed after him.

“Living room right?”

“Yes,” Elijah replied as they went there.

When they walked in, Nines was already there, sitting by and politely talking to Chloe. As Gavin walked over, Elijah paused to try and decide what to do. He could actually say something but that just felt awkward. No, it was probably better if Elijah just acted as he naturally did with Leo if it was just them and Chloe.

So as Gavin gracelessly fell next to Nines and threw his feet up on the coffee table, Elijah sat by Leo, putting his arm around him and giving him a chaste kiss on the cheek before turning back to them. It was hard not to laugh at Gavin’s expression.

“When the fuck did this happen!?” Gavin yelled.

“What?” Elijah innocently asked and he heard Leo hide a quick snicker behind his hands.

“This! That shit! And why the hell am I just now hearing about it!?”

“Oh,” Chloe calmly said, “Elijah kept putting it off because he was just nervous.”

Elijah did slightly blush at that as he said, “I don’t believe I ever told you that.”

“I live with you. It was obvious,” she brightly replied.

Gavin ignored the comment though and simply said, “I can’t believe you got a fucking boyfriend and didn’t tell me! And here I’ve been suffering through all your stupid ass comments about me and Nines!”

“Is shouting really necessary?” asked Elijah as Nines softly chuckled.

“I’m not shouting you prick!”

Elijah rolled his eyes.

“Now I finally have something to make fun of you for!”

“I highly doubt that,” smirked Elijah. “Unlike you, I’m comfortable in my display of affection.”

“How ironic though clearly obvious,” Nines dryly said.

“Oh fuck off toaster,” grumbled Gavin.

“Really? I thought we’d moved on to more intelligent descriptors,” replied Nines.

“Fuck you.”

“Maybe I’ll let you if you’re nice.”

Elijah hid his face in the crook of Leo’s neck as he laughed and he could feel Leo trying to hide his own laugh too as Gavin went beat red. However, Gavin suddenly took back control with a wicked smirk as he said, “Let me? Clearly someone’s forgotten all the times I’ve pinned you against a—”

“How about we move to some other conversation?” Elijah said, amused and a bit surprised to see Nines blushing too, but deciding he really didn’t need to hear more of his brother’s bedroom activities. “How is being a private investigator?” Elijah quickly continued, successfully moving to a new topic of discussion.

They talked for a bit with Nines going into detail on a case he was currently working. Elijah kept his arm around Leo, occasionally curling into him a bit more or kissing his cheek. Leo did the same thing, growing more comfortable up until Gavin finally threw his hands up in the air and cried, “I think I’m going to be sick! It’s fucking ridiculous how cute you’re trying to be!”

“Trying? You know, some people show affection because they want to and not for some ulterior motive like making their brother throw up,” replied Elijah.

“If you’re trying to say you’re normal, that’s a damn lie,” replied Gavin.

“As opposed to what? Your relationship with Nines?” smirked Elijah. “There’s nothing normal about it.”

“Perhaps not, but it’s at least consistent,” Nines calmly replied. “He calls me a dick in public and I dick him down in the bedroom.”

“You bastard!” Gavin tried to get his hands on Nines who simply stuck one hand out. He pressed it against Gavin’s chest and kept him perfectly at that distance even as Gavin struggled to grab more than just his arm. “I’m going to strangle you!”

“You can’t. Your arms are too short,” smiled Nines.

Elijah laughed as Gavin backed down with a furious glare. However, Gavin quickly moved forward, close to Nines’ ear as he whispered something to him. Nines blinked in shock, a light blush appearing again on his cheeks as Gavin leaned back with a wicked grin. Elijah really didn’t want to know what that was about and thankfully, Gavin seemed fine with keeping that comment secret. In fact, Gavin finally moved to really look Leo over as he asked, “So what the hell do you do?”

Leo seemed a bit surprise that the conversation was starting to focus on him. However, he slowly opened up as he talked about the coffee shop job but how he was turning to the gallery gig full time. Gavin actually seemed interested, or at least acted like he was as he nodded and asked questions.

Elijah realized he was just trying to get to know Leo even if the things Leo was talking about didn’t actually interest him. It made Elijah happy, knowing his brother cared in such a way. Of course, Gavin had to try and find some way to annoy Elijah though and eventually said, “Well, I do have to commend you. I mean, I can now totally see how this artsy fart would fall for you. Definitely bagged this sugar daddy.”

“Three!” Elijah yelled, finally letting go of Leo so he could shove his fingers in Gavin’s face. “Three months! I am not that old!”

“I think someone’s a bit touchy on the subject,” mumbled Gavin as Elijah fell back and crossed his arms with a pout.

Leo laughed as he wrapped his arm around Elijah’s. “Don’t worry. I don’t think you’re that old.”

Elijah continued to glare at Gavin. “This is for all those times I treated you like a younger brother, isn’t it?”

“You’re god damn right!” smirked Gavin. “Now I’m fucking tired from all the yelling—”

“So you do admit you yell approximately half the time.”

Gavin ignored the comment and finished with, “—time for some fucking cake. I’ll go grab it.”

“I’ll help,” Chloe smiled, hopping to her feet and following Gavin out of the room.

Elijah just rolled his eyes for what felt like the trillionth time in just under two hours. However, despite the near constant flow of conversation one way or another, in the back of Elijah’s mind he had been trying to decipher what could possibly be in the package. Clearly Gavin hadn’t wrapped it up. It was far too neat in that regard. The brown paper it had been wrapped in was older and simple too, with no type of label or clue as to where it had come from.

Whenever he hadn’t been talking or clearly the others were expecting him to respond, Elijah had been trying to figure out just what the hell it was. His bastard of a brother was right. He did instinctively obsess over problems like this.

The moment Gavin was out of the room, Elijah instinctively tried to reach for it but Nines’ hand suddenly shot forward and grabbed it before he could.

“Hmm, Gavin is a surprisingly good predictor of your actions,” Nines commented with a sly smile.

“And he told you to keep it from me. Didn’t he?” groaned Elijah.

“Exactly.”

Leo laughed as Elijah covered his face because just maybe if he didn’t look at it, he wouldn’t obsess over it so much.

Gavin and Chloe were soon walking back in and as Gavin set the cake down with Chloe holding plates, Elijah couldn’t help but blink in surprise. “When you told me you were going to make it yourself, I did not expect it to look this nice.”

“Uh, you can actually thank Nines for it,” Gavin admitted. “I mean, I did pretty good on mine too! Just uh, you know um…Boo may have jumped in it.”

Elijah laughed good and hard at imagining that just as Spooner jumped onto the table.

“Oh no you don’t,” chuckled Leo as he scooped up the cat. “We’ll try and keep the same thing from happening again, hmm?”

“Thank god,” groaned Gavin as Chloe passed the plates over and Gavin started to cut the cake. Spooner meowed to be put down and quickly padded away. At the same time, Gavin asked, “So Nines, did he try and grab it?”

“Of course.”

“Damn it! I am wracking my mind with everything I can possibly think of and I just don’t know what the hell you could have gotten,” Elijah groaned.

“Patience is a virtue,” Chloe reminded him as Elijah just groaned again.

Gavin was polite enough to give a thin piece to Chloe too so that way she wasn’t having to continually poke and prod at Elijah’s own piece.

“You know,” Gavin commented as he sat back and looked at Nines. “You could always ask for taste receptors.”

“I’d rather not risk interference with my forensic capabilities,” Nines replied.

“There would have to be some reworking and some of your abilities would likely be hindered or replaced,” Elijah admitted. He was just stating factual information at that point, and he didn’t expect Gavin to get so excited.

“Fucking do it! I’m tired of seeing him lick shit up!”

“You asked for my help on that one case,” responded Nines. “I was helping.”

“Licking up my crime scene is not helping! You’re worse than Connor!” Gavin yelled. He waved a finger at Elijah. “And you better believe I blame you for this shit!”

And again, Elijah was forced to roll his eyes as he asked, “How? I’ve already explained I didn’t design everyone and had long since left Cyberlife by the time they were compiling the technology to build a walking forensic lab.”

“Oh yeah? Well where the hell would you put a forensic lab?”

“Well now that I know it bothers you so much, probably the mouth,” grinned Elijah.

“Urgh asshole!” Gavin growled out.

Before he could complain more, Chloe easily injected herself into the conversation and said, “The cake is quite nice Nines. Do you like the cook?”

“It’s an entertaining experience and I find food shuts Gavin up so none of it goes to waste,” Nines smirked, leading to Gavin elbowing him and instantly regretting it.

“You should come cook with us. Elijah and I do it quite often,” Chloe smiled.

“What’s your specialty?”

“Oh anything really! Though Elijah is partial to Japanese cuisine because of the time he spent over there. I personally enjoy making food of Greek origin.”

As Chloe and Nines seemed wrapped up in that conversation, Gavin got up and forced himself next to Leo who looked at him with surprise. “Alright, I see Chloe’s dragging Nines to the dark side, now I just have to drag Leo to the darker side.”

“That made no sense,” groaned Elijah as Leo just blinked in confusion.

“Alright, tell me the dirt,” Gavin said.

“T-the what?”

“Don’t listen to him,” sighed Elijah just as Gavin said, “There’s got to be something. Something that annoys you. Anything.”

“Well…”

“Yes?” Gavin said inching closer.

“He’s sometimes too careful with certain information because he over thinks things and is a bit overprotective.”

“Apologies about that,” Elijah gently said.

“It’s ok. And you’ve gotten better at it,” smiled Leo.

“Urgh, this is going to be harder than I thought. There’s nothing?! Nothing that pissed you off or that makes you want to tear your hair out of your head?” asked Gavin.

“Um…no.”

“Alright, I see we’re going to have to go with a different approach,” Gavin sighed. “Have you done anything that annoys him? Huh? Have you ever just made him grate his teeth?”

“You make me grate my teeth,” Elijah dryly said.

“No,” Leo replied with a shake of his head. He was clearly trying to wrack his brain for something that would appease Gavin and finally just fell on, “I mean, I called him Mothman once but that was more teasing him than anything.”

Elijah’s eyes shot to Gavin as a grin flashed across his brother’s face. “Oh no.”

“Wait, wh—”

“Elijah, I like this guy because he’s a fucking genius!” yelled Gavin as Leo jumped in surprise next to him. Elijah just let out another large groan. “I mean, Mothman! How could I not think of this? It’s perfect!”

Chloe and Nines had both stopped talking at Gavin’s outburst. Nines cocked his head to the side. “Referencing Elijah Kamski’s reclusive nature to that of the illusiveness of cryptid sightings like the Mothman, a rather simple analogy.”

“Don’t encourage him, please.”

“I think it’s an excellent idea,” smirked Nines. “It is surprising no one’s done something like that before. You should start a blog.”

Chloe laughed as Elijah just covered his face with his hands. Leo winced and whispered a small apology as Gavin’s eyes only lit up in more excitement.

“Kamski! Man or legend-actually no. Strike that. Your ego’s big enough as it is. We need something simpler,” Gavin said. “Just…man or cryptid. Simple and not to narcissistic sounding.”

“Must you really act so joyous over this?” Elijah sighed as he peeked between his fingers.

“After all the shit you’ve pulled on me? Hell yeah! I mean, clearly teasing you about your relationship is more likely to embarrass Leo than you. I have to do something,” smirked Gavin. He pulled out his phone and held it out. “Smile!”

“Hang on—”

Elijah tried to rush forward as Gavin snapped a picture and quickly backed up.

“Let’s see,” mused Gavin. “There’s some motion blur, slightly out of focus, poorly framed. Put a black and white filter over it for aesthetic and I think we’ve got our first Kamski sighting.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” Elijah said with narrowed eyes.

“Wouldn’t I?”

“Give me the phone!”

Leo quickly pulled his legs onto the couch, hugging them as Elijah ran after Gavin who quickly ran in the other direction.

“Oh no you don’t! This is going to be hilarious!”

“Not it’s not!”

They chased each other round the living room for the moment, Nines, Chloe, and Leo carefully staying out of their way. Eventually, they ended up on opposite sides of the table again. Elijah would jerk to his right and Gavin would do the same, both unsure of where the other was going to go.

“Don’t you dare.”

Gavin’s grin just widened. “Sent.”

Elijah quickly looked at his options, at how they were just going back and forth around everything in the living room. So, instead of going around, he took note of where the cake was so he could avoid stepping in it and then suddenly launched himself forward on the table. That surprised Gavin enough that he froze up and Elijah finally tackled him to the ground with a loud thud.

Chloe unsuccessfully hid the snort that escaped her mouth behind her hands as Gavin let out a loud groan. Elijah snatched his phone out of his hands just as Gavin said, “Was that really necessary?”

“Yes, and you can get it back when you leave?”

“How about if I let you finally open the package?”

“Will you?”

“Only if you give me my phone back.”

“Hmm, fine,” Elijah conceded, not doubting for a second that Gavin would actually take the package home just to torture Elijah more unless he got his phone back now.

Elijah rolled off him, handing the phone back over as Gavin sat up and rubbed his head. “I have to admit. I wasn’t expecting you to do that.”

“Which is exactly why I did it,” smirked Elijah as he got up, grabbed the package, and sat down. “Now what the hell is this?” he mused.

Gavin smirked as Elijah finally tore it open, eyes widening in surprise as he read the title cover. He looked it over, automatically muttering to himself as he did.

“No way you could have bought this with your own money. No, you used my card, of course you did. Really Gavin, not much of a present when I technically bought it myself.”

“Then why are you smiling so much and clearly gesturing to Chloe to track down any other physical copies there may be?” Gavin replied.

“I’m not doing that,” Elijah said without taking his eyes from the comic, still making vague gestures towards Chloe.

“Yeah, sure you aren’t,” smirked Gavin.

Leo leaned slightly over and shook his head with a small smile. “Of course you’d be obsessive over Iron Man of all the superheroes.”

“I’m not obsessed,” Elijah said, still not taking his eyes off it.

“Yeah, you just lock up any childish tendencies trying to be an adult, yuck,” muttered Gavin, “and then I pleasantly pull them all back out for you to re-obsess over.”

“Well, I guess if we’re doing presents now, I should show you mine,” Leo said.

That finally got Elijah to pull his eyes away. “You…you didn’t have to Leo.”

“Yeah, well I wanted to. Come on. Chloe helped me get it into the library.”

That clearly peaked Elijah’s interest as he wondered why it would have been placed there.

“You’re welcomed to come too,” Leo politely added towards Gavin and Nines.

“Sounds like you a good idea. I can capture more Kamski photos in different settings,” Gavin smirked.

“You know, I don’t understand how I ever liked you,” Elijah dryly said.

“Oh you love me.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Yeah, well I love you so that’s basically the same thing.”

“It really isn’t,” sighed Elijah as he rolled eyes. Still, a fond smile moved across his face at his brother’s antics as they made their way to the library.

They walked in and Leo made a little gesture to one of the walls. Elijah looked, eyes widening as Chloe smiled with joy behind him.

“It’s…it was one of those unfinished works, that my dad just…he couldn’t find the inspiration for so it just sat in a room for years. He…he gave me the opportunity to finish it and…well it certainly wouldn’t work in my apartment. So I…I thought you might like it as a gift.”

Elijah’s eyes roamed over the piece that now sat on one of the walls. He could tell which strokes were Carl’s, which were Leo’s, and yet they all somehow managed to blend together despite the distinctly different styles. It was beautiful.

“Thank you,” murmured Elijah as he gently took Leo’s hand.

“You mean that?”

“It’s wonderful,” Elijah replied before gently kissing him.

“Christ, you’re too fucking sweet on each other,” groaned Gavin, utterly ruining the moment. “Painting looks fucking cool Leo but I’m going to eat more cake.”

Elijah let out a long, drawn out sigh as Leo just laughed and murmured, “Well I’m glad you think it looks good.”

They all slowly ended up back in the living room, talking for some period of time before Gavin and Nines said they probably needed to get going due to work.

Elijah thanked Gavin for the comic while at the same time cursing him for the damned Mothman shit to which Gavin simply said, “Personally, I think the blog is going to do great. Thanks for the pics bro.”

And Elijah could only roll his eyes again as they left. Back in the living room, Elijah tried to clean up but Chloe quickly shoed his hands away.

“No, it’s your birthday. I’ve got this,” Chloe smiled, quickly taking everything and perfectly balancing it in her hands.

Elijah sat down with a sigh, Leo sitting near him.

“So you really liked it?” Leo asked again.

“I adored it. There was no way I couldn’t have.”

They lightly kissed as Leo then asked, “So you had a good day.”

 “Surprisingly, yes, despite my intentions of not even celebrating my birthday and Gavin’s antics,” Elijah muttered. “I’m glad you both finally met though.”

“Me too. And Nines is definitely an interesting character. His and Gavin’s relationship is…weird to say the least.”

“That’s putting it mildly,” laughed Elijah as he gently kissed Leo. He pulled him closer, the kiss deepening before he softly murmured, “You can still stay the night?”

“Definitely,” Leo replied. He kissed him again and without breaking it, straddled Elijah’s lap. He placed both arms around Elijah’s neck as Elijah gripped Leo’s thighs and pulled him closer.

“Oh, and Elijah…”

“Yes Chloe?” he asked, easily breaking away and cocking his head to the side.

“Don’t talk to her like it’s normal!” cried Leo, his face turning red as he quickly buried it into the crook of Elijah’s neck.

Elijah could feel the heat radiating off Leo’s skin as he laughed.

Chloe simply smiled and said, “I just wanted to say I got invited to go out. I trust you’ll be fine if I leave now?”

“Most definitely.” Leo hit him in the chest for that.

“I’ll see you later then. Bye,” she pleasantly said, walking away before anymore could be said.

“I hate you,” came Leo’s muffled response.

“No you don’t,” chuckled Elijah as he gently ran his fingers through Leo’s hair.

“Damn it. You’re right.”

“Of course,” Elijah replied as Leo finally looked up again. He kissed him gently as he cupped his cheek before murmuring against his lips, “Now, where were we?”


End file.
